How to Have A Home Fire Safety Drill

Be sure all the smoke alarms in your home are working.

Assume that the worst just might happen, and prepare for it! Practice emergency evacuation with your family until it becomes an automatic response. This is critical for children in the middle of the night. Children who practice home fire drills regularly are less likely to panic when the real thing happens. Their lives may depend on staying calm and knowing what to do.

Things You'll Need

• Emergency evacuation plan
• Fire ladder

Instructions

1. Go over your family's written emergency evacuation plan with each member of the family. It should make sense for your particular home, and be easy to follow even for children. Identify an alternate route for each room -- many times it's the window -- in case the main evacuation route is blocked.

2. Make sure each family member knows where the emergency kit is. It should contain a list of emergency contact phone numbers, slipper socks and blankets, or a change of clothing for each person, bottled water and flashlights. Stored it in the garage, a shed or at a neighbor's house.

3. Be sure each family member knows where the meeting spot is. Choose a spot far enough away from your home to be safe from the flames, such as an unattached garage or a neighbor's front porch.

4. Teach everyone in the family, even small children, what the smoke detector alarm sounds like.

5. Have a fire drill with your family regularly, at different times of the day. Make it a requirement for everyone. If it's a new thing at your house, practice once a week until everyone does well. When the main route is memorized, start adding variations.

6. Stand at the front door and blow a whistle repeatedly. Be sure the kids know that you may or may not blow a whistle if a real fire breaks out, and that if they ever hear the smoke detectors alarm, they should respond immediately. It may be that you're burning dinner, but that's OK. They need to respond every time they hear the smoke detector alarm.

7. Have someone stand in different spots throughout the house, holding out their arms and yelling "I'm a fire! Find another way out!" This makes the kids think under pressure.

8. Purchase a fire safety ladder for second floor windows, and at least once a year, practice using the ladder, particularly with children who are old enough to manage it safely. Practice with an adult at the top of the ladder and two at the bottom, in case someone slips. Make sure that your ladder is stored according to the directions.

9. Always meet at your designated meeting spot. Talk about what might have happened if it had been a real fire.

Tips & Warnings

• Put fire extinguishers in several places throughout your home. During a structure fire, easy access to an extinguisher could give you a chance to knock down flames long enough to escape alive.

• Smoke detectors with dead batteries or NO batteries don't work!!

References

• HomeFireDrill.org: Help Me Practice My Home Fire Drill