Your Family's Escape Plan

Every family should have a home escape plan and should practice it frequently.  Practicing a fire escape plan and fire safe behaviors can mean the difference between life and death.  Here are tips on creating and practicing your family's plan:

• Involve the whole family in planning.
• Draw a diagram of your home marking the locations of all windows and doors.
• plan two escape routes out of every room in your home.
• Designate an adult to help young children and others who might have a difficulty escaping.
• Every member of the family and frequent visitors to the home should know and practice the escape route.
• Teach children to stay close to the ground when leaving the home.
• Teach children to touch doors with the back of the hand to see if they are hot.  If they are, use a secondary escape rout.  If not, open doors slowly.
• Set up a specific meeting place outside the home for everyone to go to following an escape and teach children to never re-enter a home for any reason.
• Practice the escape plan at least once a month.  Try practicing a night to see if children wake to the smoke alarm.
• Smoke and fire can hinder sight so try practicing your escape route with your eyes closed or in the dark by feeling your way around your home.
• When in full gear, a firefighter may appear frightening to a child so teach them not to hide from them.  Try taking them on a tour of your local fire station.

Article posted from www.utahsafetycouncil.org