Protecting Your Family From Fire

Protecting your family from fire requires advance planning, including the use of smoke detectors, to provide early warning of fire. You need to do more to protect your family from fire.

1. Respect fire and teach your family to respect it too. Store matches and lighters out of reach of children. Hold fire drills at least twice a year to let your family practice the right things to do in an emergency, including STOP, DROP, and ROLL if their clothes catch fire. The moment clothes start to burn, stop where you are, drop to the ground, and roll over and over with your hands covering your face to smother the flames.
2. Install smoke detectors outside bedrooms and on every level of the home. Test and maintain the detectors as if your life depends on it. Make sure everyone can clearly hear the alarm from their bedrooms.
3. Make an escape plan and practice it with your family. Immediately leave the home. Do not waste any time saving property. Call the fire department from a neighbor's home. Take the safest exit route, but if you must escape through smoke, remember to crawl low under smoke. Know two ways out of each room. This may include going out the window. Practice escaping by both the primary and secondary routes to be sure that windows are not stuck and screens can be taken out quickly. Windows and doors with security bars need quick release devices in case of emergency. Practice escaping in the dark. Feel the door. When you come to a closed door, use the back of your hand to feel the top of the door, the door knob, and the crack between the door and door frame to make sure that fire is not on the other side. If it feels hot, use your secondary escape route. Even if the door feels cool, open it carefully. Brace your shoulder against the door and open slowly. If heat and smoke come in, close the door securely and use your alternate escape route. Have an arranged meeting place. If you meet under a specific tree or at the end of the driveway or front sidewalk, you will know that everyone has gotten out safely. Designate one person to go to a neighbor's home to phone the fire department. Once out, STAY OUT. Never go back into a burning building for any reason. If someone is missing, tell the fire fighters. They are equipped to perform rescues safely.
4. If there are family members who cannot escape unassisted, consider a residential sprinkler system.

For more information on protecting your family from fire, visit http://www.usfa.fema.gov.