Recent Fire Damage Posts

Fire Escape Plans

4/11/2025 (Permalink)

Fire is a risk in every building — whether you sleep, study, or work there — you should always have an escape plan. You may need to escape within a few minutes of a fire’s start, so your safe exit depends on immediate warning from smoke alarms and advance planning of escape routes.

Escape Plan Basics
  • Include two ways out of every room in all escape plans
  • Designate a location to meet outside the building
  • Verify that smoke alarms are installed to provide early detection and warning, so you’ll have enough time to execute your escape plan
  • Make sure doors located in your path of travel can be opened from the inside under all lighting conditions
  • Verify that doors located in your path of travel Do not require a key to open from the inside
  • Take note of whether any disabled or elderly residents will require evacuation assistance
  • Conduct a roll call to verify everyone has escaped the building
  • Remain outside until notified by the fire department that it is safe to re-enter the building
  • Practice, practice, practice your plan!
If your secondary escape route is a window…
  • Make sure the window can be opened from the inside
  • Assure the window is large enough for you to pass through the opening
  • Verify the windowsill is low enough to allow you to crawl through the opening
  • Make sure any security bars can be opened from the inside without the use of a key, and that you can open them under all lighting conditions
  • Determine how you will escape if the window is above the first floor: will you purchase a rope ladder or other emergency escape device, or will you wait for the fire department to arrive and evacuate you?
  • Make sure sloping terrain, the location of the window, or other factors will not prevent the window from being used as a secondary escape route

More information about fire safety here