More than half of all home fire deaths occur between 10:00 PM and 6:00 AM.
You should make sure you have an escape plan and that you practice with your family.
You can help protect your family by planning and practicing a home fire escape plan!
Use a graph to draw a floor plan of your home or apartment. You can ask a grown-up to help with this. Draw all the floors in your home and make sure to include all of the windows and doors. Show the stairways and how many stairs are on each one. Make sure to show two ways out of every room.
After you have drawn your floor plan, talk to everyone in your home or apartment about escape routes.
If your fire escape window has security bars or a gate, make sure it’s FDNY-approved for fire escape windows.
Make sure you and everyone else in your home knows how to unlock and open the windows and doors.
Keep stairways and exits clear of clutter.
Agree on a meeting place outside your home where you can make sure everyone is out safely.
Now, it’s time to practice!
Get your whole family involved in practicing the plan with a realistic fire drill. Since many fires occur in the overnight or morning hours, have your family members pretend they are sleeping.
Make the house dark and pretend it’s filled with smoke, making it difficult to see.
Begin the fire drill with the sound of the smoke alarm and make sure everyone can hear it clearly.
Some extra things to remember:
Try taking on the responsibility of waking up your brother or sister or waking up an adult in the home.
Practice escaping through smoke by crawling low on your hands and knees.
Remind your family members NOT to spend time collecting possessions.
Close the doors behind you as you leave and follow your escape plan all the way through to the meeting place.
If there is a fire in your home, it can be very scary. If there isn’t an adult around to help, it can be even scarier. But it’s important to remember NEVER to hide in the case of a fire. Don’t run into your closet or hide under your bed, because that makes it even more difficult for firefighters to find you and help you get to safety.
If you can, it’s a good idea to get outside. If you’ve made an escape plan with your family, try your best to get to the safe meeting spot you planned.
To get outside, crawl low to stay beneath the smoke. If there’s an adult nearby, call out to them to help. Call out to firefighters so they can help you!