Fire Escape Plans

Your ability to get out of your home during a fire depends on advance warning from smoke alarms and advance planning. Fire can spread rapidly through your home, leaving you as little as 1 or 2 minutes to escape safely once the smoke alarm sounds. Scroll down to learn more and download free PDF templates and information at the bottom of this page.

*For Fire Escape plans and tips geared to Seniors and Older Adults, go to our dedicated page for Fire Safety for Seniors.

Escape planning tips:

• Pull together everyone in your household and make a plan. Walk through your home and inspect all possible exits and escape routes.  Households with children should consider drawing a floor plan of your home, marking two ways out of each room, including windows and doors. Also, mark the location of each smoke alarm.
• A closed door may slow the spread of smoke, heat and fire. Install smoke alarms in every sleeping room, outside each sleeping area and on every level of the home. NFPA 72, National Fire Alarm Code® requires interconnected smoke alarms throughout the home. When one sounds, they all sound.
• When you walk through your plan, check to make sure the escape routes are clear and doors and windows can be opened easily.
• Choose an outside meeting place (i.e. neighbor's house, a light post, mailbox, or stop sign) a safe distance in front of your home where everyone can meet after they've escaped. Make sure to mark the location of the meeting place on your escape plan.
• Go outside to see if your street number is clearly visible from the road. If not, paint it on the curb or install house numbers to ensure that responding emergency personnel can find your home.
• Have everyone memorize the emergency phone number of the fire department. That way any member of the household can call from a neighbor's home or a cellular phone once safely outside.
• If there are infants, older adults, or family members with mobility limitations, make sure that someone is assigned to assist them in the fire drill and in the event of an emergency. Assign a backup person too, in case the designee is not home during the emergency
• If windows or doors in your home have security bars, make sure that the bars have emergency release devices inside so that they can be opened immediately in an emergency. Emergency release devices won't compromise your security - but they will increase your chances of safely escaping a home fire.
• If you have bedrooms on the 2^nd or 3^rd floor, invest in a fire escape ladder. And practice with it with a responsible adult present.
• You only have minutes to get out and stay out! Keep your wallet and keys next to you when you are sleeping. You will not have time to get them from another room if you need to escape in the event of fire.
• Tell guests or visitors to your home about your family's fire escape plan. When staying overnight at other people's homes, ask about their escape plan. If they don't have a plan in place, offer to help them make one. This is especially important when children are permitted to attend "sleepovers" at friends' homes.
• Be fully prepared for a real fire: when a smoke alarm sounds, get out immediately. Residents of high-rise and apartment buildings may be safer "defending in place."
• Once you're out, stay out! Under no circumstances should you ever go back into a burning building. If someone is missing, inform the fire department dispatcher when you call. Firefighters have the skills and equipment to perform rescues.

(source: NFPA)

The Escape Plan: Test Your Fire Safety Skills (Interactive Link)

In this virtual and augmented reality experience, players are racing against the clock to escape from an apartment fire, navigating through several rooms and making fast decisions to avoid danger. The free Escape Plan virtual reality experience for people aged 13 or older was created by Meta, FEMA's Ready Campaign and the Ad Council. The experience lets players practice their fire escape skills on their own time and in a safe, controlled environment using virtual reality equipment. At the end of the experience, players can create their own fire escape plan. While virtual reality equipment is recommended, desktop and mobile users can participate in the experience and practice fire safety anywhere there is internet connectivity.

Check out the free downloadable information and activity sheets below, including Fire Escape Plan grids with instructions.

This content is free for use with credit to the Town of Hadley (MA) Fire Department.