How to Teach Family About Fire Safety at Home

Fire safety begins in the home.

For fire safety at home, besides telling your children not to play with matches, taking precautions with fireplaces and holiday lights and changing the batteries on smoke alarms, you should teach children what to do if a fire breaks out in your house. Discuss what you would do and practice as if there were a fire.

Instructions

1. Tell children what to do if a smoke alarm goes off at night while they are sleeping. Push the smoke alarm button, so children can hear what it sounds like. As soon as children hear the alarm, they should know to start their fire safety routine.

2. Tell children they should feel the bedroom door to see whether it is hot (if they sleep with the door closed). They must understand not to feel the doorknob, because that could burn them. Practice both possible scenarios with children--what to do whether the door is hot or it is cool. If the door is hot, they should put a blanket at the bottom of their doors to keep out smoke, open their windows and then follow the directions you have given them on how to proceed.

3. Show children how to crawl to safety from their rooms to the closest outside door. Explain to them how smoke rises, and that's why they need to crawl. Remind them they need to feel any door they come to, including the door to the outside, before they open it.

4. Show children how to use a piece of clothing to cover their mouths and noses while they are crawling. This keeps out dangerous fumes from the fire. Ask them to practice crawling to safety while they are covering their mouths and noses.

5. Create a meeting spot away from the home where each family member should go after escaping from the house. This can be a mailbox or a tree in a neighbor's yard. Take your children to the meeting spot and stress to them how important it is to come to this spot if there is a fire.

6. Discuss with children fire escape routes from each room while using a diagram of your house. Practice escaping from each room. The best way to teach your family fire safety is to practice.

Tips & Warnings

• Call your local fire station to see if they have free fire safety posters, brochures or other information geared toward children.

• Practice with children stop, drop and roll and explain why this is important.

References

• Kids Health: Fire Safety
• U.S. Fire Administration: Working Together for Home Fire Safety

Resources

• U.S. Fire Administration: USFA Publications