Fire Safety
Prepare Your Home and Family
Fire Safety
Home
fires are the most common disaster that the Red Cross responds to and
also the most preventable. Families need to take a few simple
precautions to avoid tragedies, such as having working smoke alarms on
every level of their homes and having family fire escape plans in place
to help get everyone out of the house safely. The American Red Cross
recommends the following when creating your family escape plan:
- Identify two ways to escape from every room in the home.
- Practice your escape plan at least twice a year.
- Select a safe location away from the home where your family can meet after escaping.
- Consider purchasing and storing escape ladders for rooms above ground level and make sure to learn how to use them.
- If you see smoke or fire in your first escape route, use your second way out.
- If you must exit through smoke, crawl low under the smoke.
- Before escaping through a closed door, feel the door before opening it. If it is warm, use your second escape route.
- If
smoke, heat or flames block both of your exit routes, stay in the room
with the door closed. Place a rolled towel underneath the door. Signal
for help by waving a brightly colored cloth or shining a flashlight at
the window. If there is a telephone in the room, call the fire
department and let them know your exact location inside the home.
- Once you've escaped, stay out.
Redcross.org