Home Fire Escape Plan Checklist

22 items · Home · Easy difficulty · 1 hour

Make a home fire escape plan with your household: map two ways out of every room, pick a meeting spot, check smoke alarms and practice at night.

• Draw a floor plan of each level of your home
• Mark two ways out of every room

  Usually that means a door and a window.

• Check that every window on the plan opens easily and its screen comes out

  Paint, swollen frames and stuck locks are easier to find now than in the dark.

• Make sure any security bars have a quick-release on the inside
• Get an escape ladder for each bedroom above the ground floor

  Keep it beside the window it is meant for.

• Choose one meeting spot outside, a safe distance in front of the house

  A mailbox, a tree or a neighbor's driveway works. Everyone goes there and stays there.

• Check for a smoke alarm in every bedroom, outside each sleeping area and on every level

  Count the basement as a level.

• Test every smoke alarm and replace any that are 10 years old or more

  The manufacture date is printed on the back of the alarm.

• Think about interconnected alarms, so one going off sounds them all
• Make sure your house number is easy to read from the street at night
• Decide who helps babies, young children, older adults or anyone who moves slowly

  Name one person and a backup for each.

• Teach everyone to touch a closed door with the back of a hand before opening it

  If the door or the handle is hot, use the second way out.

• Teach everyone to get low and crawl under smoke
• Sleep with bedroom doors closed

  A closed door slows heat and smoke and buys time to get out.

• Agree that once out, nobody goes back in for pets or belongings

  Tell firefighters who is still inside and where.

• Call 911 once you are outside
• In an apartment, learn where every exit stairway is

  Count the doors from your unit to the nearest stairway in case the hall fills with smoke. Never use the elevator in a fire.

• Fill in the plan on the printout and post it where everyone sees it
• Run a daytime drill with everyone at home

  Start it with the smoke alarm's test button and time how long it takes to reach the meeting spot. The National Fire Protection Association says you may have as little as two minutes to get out once the alarm sounds.

• Run a drill at night
• Practice twice a year

  Pair it with something you already do twice a year, such as changing the clocks.

• Walk overnight guests and babysitters through the exits and the meeting spot

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