- GET EVERYONE INVOLVED. Fire is an
equal opportunity killer. It treats no one special in your house due to sex,
age, education, or position in the family. It doesn't do any good if Mom and
the kids have practiced a plan but Dad didn't because he was at work and a fire breaks out
while Dad is watching the kids while Mom is out of the house. Does the
Baby-sitter have a clue, or are you depending upon his or her good judgment?
During a fire is not a really good time to start teaching family members about
the fire safety plan. Seconds count! Everyone must know who, what, when, and
why beforehand and it should be second-nature.
- DRAW A FLOOR PLAN. While this is
primarily for determining exit paths, use this to know your assets.
 Where
are your fire extinguishers? One right next to the stove may not be a good
idea since it may be too close to the fire should you have a kitchen fire.
Each room should have two ways out, be they a door or window. What if you are
on second floor and the stairs are on fire? Do you need to invest in a life
safety ladder (roll-up aluminum chain link ladder that goes over a window
sill in case of fire)? Do you have detectors? What type are they (smoke, heat,
CO)? Are they positioned properly? Do they work (when was the last time you
checked and be honest)?
- PRACTICE A FIRE DRILL. Once you have
your exits planned out, let everyone know where they are for each room in the
house. And remember, each room should have at least two exits. Once everyone
is aware of the exits (you might want to post a piece of paper in each room,
near the light switch with the exit paths to the outside until they become
second nature), you should hold frequent fire drills so that it becomes second
nature on where to go and what to do. Vary the time of day and day of week
that you hold the drills. Do not be afraid to hold some at night. Fire does
not strike only from 9 - 5. When you are confident that everyone has got it,
you can taper off to one drill a month so that it acts a refresher. Vary the
scenarios in your drills to mimic real life. For example, one school (not in
Eatontown) always led the children out to the left during fire drills until
the fire chief stood in the exit route said that this way is blocked. They had
always gone left and were not prepared to deal with the fact that that route
might be blocked. It wasn't in the curriculum. 'Nuff said.
- EVACUATE HOME IMMEDIATELY. Upon
hearing the agreed upon notification signal(s), be it the smoke or heat alarm,
the fire alarm, or someone yelling fire, everyone needs to get out of the
house immediately. You don't know what set off the alarm (i.e., how big or
dangerous it might be) and it is better to play it safe than sorry. Don't
waste precious time by playing Sherlock Holmes. Fire spreads in seconds, not
minutes. Everyone inside goes outside. One parent and the kids don't go
outside with the other parent still inside playing detective. The only place
your safety is guaranteed is outside away from the fire.
- DO NOT OPEN HOT DOORS. When you get
to a door, STOP and FEEL IT FIRST. DO NOT feel it by grabbing the metal
doorknob with your palm. If the knob is hot enough, your hand will
automatically contract around the knob and you will now be stuck to the knob.
Feel the door (or any object with the BACK OF YOUR PALM. In this way,
when the heat makes your hand contract, it will be pulling away from the heat
source rather than toward it. When feeling or attempting to open a door in a
fire scenario, never crawl or stand (more on standing later) to the side of
the door that is going to open. Make sure you are behind the center of the
door. While there are no hard and fast rules as to open or not to open a door,
an obviously hot door which just burnt you hand should probably not be opened.
If after you feel the door and you feel it is safe to open, do it slowly, and
again from behind the door, not the side that opens. In case flames, heavy
smoke, or superheated air enters your room, you will not be the direct line of
fire (pardon the pun). You will be able to put your weight behind the door and
close it and use "Plan B" which should be your second escape route.
- A WORD ABOUT WINDOWS. If you have to
open any windows to facilitate your exit and they are stuck, use whatever is
handy to break them. A chair, a lamp, a wastepaper basket, that vase that you
always hated. Use your fist only as a last resort. Remember glass cuts and you
have arteries in your arm. If you have to use your fist, wrap it in something
first. When the window is broken, ensure that you have enough glass removed so
that you can fit through safely. Again, use the object, not your fist. Try to
place a towel or blanket in the window frame, so that if you have to exit that
way, you will not cut yourself on any protruding glass. If you have a window
which opens up and down, break the top pane also. This is so that any smoke,
which rises, will exit above you, not out the hole in which you are sticking
your head. While each house is constructed differently and each fire is
different, it is generally better to wait for rescue than to exit via a
window. This will be a personal choice based on factors of a particular
situation. If you have to exit via a window, and you don't have a life safety
ladder, or a concerned neighbor with a ladder, it is best not to jump but to
hang down from the window and then to let go. If you jump from a second story
window, based on the common factor of 10 feet per floor, you are jumping 15 or
more feet. If you hang down, you are only going to fall 15 feet less your
height , (i.e., 15 feet minus 6 feet (your height) equals a fall of only 9
feet, the distance from your feet to the ground).
- FRESHEST AIR IS CLOSEST TO THE FLOOR.
In a fire, the freshest and coolest air is near the floor. This is because
smoke and heat rise. If you have to exit a smoky environment, the best way
to do so is crawling on your hands and knees NOT standing up. Not only
will you be getting the freshest and coolest air possible, you will not
literally be running into the unknown. In a fire, smoke is BLACK and THICK.
If you are standing up, chances are your head will be in the smoke and you
won't see that hole where the floor used to be until you step right through
it. If you are crawling, your hands become sensors. They feel out in front of
you. If your normally hard floor feels soft or spongy , it might not support
your weight. If they don't find a floor, you are going to (hopefully) stop and
assess the situation. Is it a small hole, which you can crawl over or do you
have to find another way out. When going down stairs, just the opposite is
true. Go down backwards. This is so that if down below you the stairs are
burnt away, your hands will be above you and you will be able to grab on to
something to stop your fall.
- DECIDE ON A MEETING PLACE OUTSIDE.
This is important for accountability purposes. The meeting place should be the
same for all members of the family and should be far enough away from the
burning structure to ensure your safety. It could be the far edge of the front
lawn, the neighbor's front lawn, the mailbox, or whatever. The key is that
everyone knows where it is and is trained to go there in the event of an
emergency. Again, it should be far enough away from the burning structure to
ensure your safety. All family members, in some order (usually age) should be
trained to take a head-count and let officials know if all people are
accounted for or if anyone is missing.
- CALL THE FIRE DEPARTMENT FROM NEIGHBORS
OR OTHER LOCATION. Do not stay inside a smoky or otherwise dangerous
environment to call the fire department. Ensure human life safety and get out
first. You can either call 9-1-1 or call the police department at 201-487-2400. Most
children are taught to dial 9-1-1 in school and this should be reinforced at
home. While 201-487-2400 is slightly quicker, 9-1-1 is generally easier for
everyone to remember .
- DO NOT REENTER A BURNING BUILDING.
While we all have possessions that we consider irreplaceable, they only
non-replaceable items are you and your family. Clothes, jewelry, photos, and
the like can all be replaced with new. You can't. You may think it is safe to
go back in because when you came out there was only "a little" smoke. Things
could have changed drastically since you came out. The floor or stairs that
you were just on could be burned away now. The room with the photo album in it
could be fully engulfed in flames. If you are out of the burning structure,
you are out and safe. Stay that way!
- HAVE FIRE EXTINGUISHERS HANDY . There may be
times that you may be able to take care of the immediate situation yourself.
If you have a grease fire in a pan on the stove, you can generally put it out
by putting a lid on the pot and turning of the flame underneath (you are
smothering it and getting rid of the heat source). If you are faced with a
small fire or a wastepaper basket fire, you can (if you feel confident enough,
remembering that small is a relative term) try to put it out with an
extinguisher. Ensure you are using the right extinguisher for the type of
burning material. You should have reviewed extinguisher correctness for task
and placement during your floor plan and practiced use (don't pull safety pins
or actually discharge them) during your fire drills. Again, during a fire is
not a good time to read the operating instructions for the first time.
- If the fire does not go
completely out and stay out by the time the
extinguisher is used up, get out and call the fire department. Do not waste
time by trying another extinguisher.
- If the fire does go completely
out and stay out by the time the extinguisher is
used up, quickly pat yourself on the back and call the fire department. The
fire department needs to check for what we call "hidden extension". This is
for your protection. For example, this is when the fire might have been near
a wall and it heated the interior contents of the wall up and they are now
burning and spreading the fire unbeknownst to you. Do not be embarrassed to
call the fire department. We would much rather get all dressed up (in our
fancy duds) to tell you that everything is okay, then to have to pour water
on what is now the smoldering embers of what used to be your house.
In conclusion,
the author has tried to give you a both a plan of action and food for thought.
Hopefully, there are a couple of humorous points. Remember, however, in all
seriousness, fire is not funny. You, hopefully, plan. Your fire department
trains and plans. Fire on the otherhand, is lazy and does neither. It has no
desire or time to read plans or training manuals. It just burns. It doesn't
exempt you from death or injury because you are an untrained civilian, just as
it does not exempt the firefighter because he has training. Become knowledgeable
about your home and surroundings. Know what to do, who to call, and where to go
should fire strike. Do not become a statistic, become a survivor.
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