Contact(s)
The best way to survive a fire is not to have one in the first place. Good fire safety practices, such as taking care when cooking and smoking, will help to keep your home and your family safe. If the unthinkable happens and a fire occurs, a working smoke alarm on every level of your home will alert you and your family to the danger. By developing and practicing a home escape plan, everyone will know what to do and where to go when the alarm sounds. Please take a few minutes with every member of your household to make an escape plan, following the simple instructions below.
| 1. Draw a floor plan of your home. |
| Use a grid to draw a floor plan of your home. You should draw a plan for each level of your home. |
| 2. Include all possible emergency exits. |
| Draw in all the doors, windows and stairs. This will show you and your family all possible escape routes at a glance. Include any features, such as the roof of a garage or porch, that would help in your escape. |
| 3. Mark two ways out of every room. |
| The main exit from each room will be the door. However, if the door is blocked by smoke or fire, you must have a alternate escape route, which could be a window. Make sure that all windows can open easily and that everyone knows how to escape through them safely. If windows or doors have security bars, equip them with quick-release devices. |
| 4. Does anyone need help to escape? |
| Decide in advance who will assist the very young, elderly or physically challenged members of your household. A few minutes of planning will save valuable seconds in a real emergency. |
| 5. Choose a meeting place outside |
| Choose a meeting place a safe distance from your home that everyone will remember. A tree, street light or a neighbour's home are all good choices. In case of fire, everyone will go directly to this meeting place so they can be accounted for. |
| 6. Call the fire department from a neighbour's home. |
| Once at the meeting place, call the fire department from a neighbour's phone. Do not try to re-enter your home for any reason. |
| 7. Practice your escape. |
| Review the plan with everyone in your household. Walk through the escape routes for each room with the entire family. Use this walk-through exercise to check your escape routes, making sure all exits are practical and easy to use. Then hold a fire drill twice a year. In a real fire, you must react without hesitation as your escape routes may be quickly blocked by smoke or flames. |
| 8. If you live in a highrise building... Plan ahead |
| Review your building's emergency procedures to learm about the fire alarm and voice communication systems. If the alarm sounds and there is no visible smoke or flame in the hall, leave your apartment quickly, closing the door behind you. Use the stairs---never the elevator---to exit the building. If your exit is blocked by smoke or fire, stay in your apartment and seal all vents and cracks around the door with duct tape or wet sheets and towels. Telephone the fire department and let them know where you are. If smoke is entering your apartment, stay low to the ground. If you have a balcony, signal your location by waving light-coloured fabric and wait on the balcony to be rescued. |
Remember!
- Plan two ways out of every room
- Hold a fire drill twice a year
- Never go back inside a burning building for any reason!
