Fire Safety Plan

Fire can engulf your house in 60 seconds. Fire Safety Plans save lives!

Prepare

• Make sure all family members know what to do in the event of a fire.
• Draw a floor plan with at least two ways of escaping every room. Make a drawing for each floor. Dimensions do not need to be exact. Make sure the plan shows important details; stairs, hallways and windows that can be used as fire escape routes.
• Test windows and doors. Is each family member able to open them? General maintenance of these egress paths is essential to escaping the house.
• Choose a safe meeting place outside the house.

Practice Your Fire Safety Plan

• Practice alerting each other of a fire. Part of practicing your fire safety plan could be yelling "Fire" as loudly as possible, or by pressing the "test" button on a smoke detector.
• Practice evacuating the building blind-folded. In a real fire situation, the amount of smoke generated by a fire will most likely make it difficult to see.
• Practice staying low to the ground when escaping.
• Feel all doors before opening them. If a door is hot, go out another way.
• Learn to stop, drop and roll if clothing catches on fire.
• Once you are out, STAY OUT! NEVER go back into a burning building once you have reached your safe meeting place!

Helpful Hints

• Always sleep with the bedroom doors closed. This will keep deadly heat and smoke out of bedrooms, giving you additional time to escape.
• In a fire, time is critical. Don't waste time getting dressed, don't search for pets or valuables. Just get out!
• Roll out of bed. Stay low. One breath of smoke or gases may be enough to kill.
• It is a good idea to keep a flashlight for emergency use in each bedroom.

Kitchen Fires

Most home fires begin in the kitchen. The most effective way to prevent a kitchen fire is stay near the stove when you are cooking or frying. Keep your stove and oven clean and keep cooking areas clear of combustibles. Wear short or tight-fitting sleeves when you cook. Keep the handles of your pots turned inward so they do not hang over the outer edge of the stove.

Pan Fires

• If you have a small pan fire on the stove, put on an oven mitt.
• Carefully slide a lid or cookie sheet over the pan. This cuts off the oxygen, smothers the flames and allows the fire to go down.
• Turn off the heat at the burner.
• Leave the pan covered and in place. Do not try to remove it!
• Let the pan cool down before you take away the cookie sheet or lid.

Oven Fires

• Turn off the heat and keep the door closed.
• Call the fire department so that fire fighters can check for possible flame spread.

Toaster Oven or Microwave Fires

• Keep the door closed.
• Unplug the appliance if you can safely reach the outlet.
• Call the fire department to report the fire.