When we speak about preventing fires and fire safety a couple of topics usually comes up and those include the use of smoke detectors and fire extinguishers, removing fire hazards in the chimney, preventing electrical fires, and others. Today I want to talk about one that may not be as obvious, but is just as important as those and that is the fire escape plan. There are times when the best prevention features will fail and containment will also fail and at those times you need an orderly and well thought-out plan for the last option, escape. You should start with a map of your resident with all of the rooms and the doors in the house labeled. From there gather the members of the house and plan out escape routes from multiple locations in the house and determine a safe location away from the house that everyone should meet at ( a neighbors house, the corner a few hundred feet from your house, etc). If there is anyone in the house with mobility issues or any infants or young children assign someone to assist them in the event of said emergency. If you are in a two or three story house, get escape ladders and learn how to use them. After that is done test the plan and correct for any unexpected problems that occurred during the test run.
Check out this article for more information: http://www.nfpa.org/public-education/by-topic/safety-in-the-home/escape-planning/basic-fire-escape-planning.
Thank you for reading this and have a great day.
Willamette Chimney
