Fire Safety Drills And Procedures - Guest Post by Lee Flynn

Emergency Safety Procedures Are Important - How To Use Fire Safety Drills And Procedures

A disaster can happen at any time. Most families have issues handling disasters, such as tornados and hurricanes. This is why an emergency plan is needed. An efficient plan is important because it helps families survive. During a hurricane, food storage

procedures are required. However, during a fire, everyone must exit the home using the safest procedures.

Designing A Fire Escape Plan

Every escape route must be located in the home. After everyone knows where the escape routes are, everyone should walk together throughout the home to test each exit. The most common exits are usually not the best exits during emergencies, such as the front and back door. Other exits may have to be used, such as garage doors or windows. There should be two ways to exit each room in the home.

A floor plan of the home must be designed. It should include every exit in the home, and each exit must have a label. Each label should have information about fire safety procedures. The floor plan should also have information about second floor escape procedures.

Have An Emergency 72-Hour Kit

It’s crucial to have an emergency 72-hour kit at all times. When a fire, or other disaster strikes, your time to get out is limited. To make the most of your time you should consider having multiple 72-hour kits tucked away in different rooms around the house, as well as your cars.

A few elements for an emergency 72-hour kit are; bandages, painkillers, disinfectant, blankets, antibiotics, flashlights, granola bars, water bottles, candles, playing cards and a radio to name a few items. Most of these items can be picked up at your local Canadian pharmacy.

Practicing The Escape Plan

Everyone should practice using the escape plan twice a year. While practicing, pretend that the fire is located in different areas of the home. During different drills, everyone should use alternate routes. Families should also practice fire drills in the middle of the night. Nighttime fire safety drills should be done with the lights off. Practicing in the dark is recommended because it gets everyone comfortable with the surroundings.

Families must use safety precautions while practicing each drill. For example, everyone should crawl because the smoke will cause harmful affects to the eyes. Another important fire safety procedure is called stop, drop, and roll. This procedure should be used if someone’s clothes catches fire. There are other useful fire drill procedures too; some techniques can provide a lot of protection. For example, if there is a fire on the other side of a door, the doorknob will be hot. Because of this, families must practice touching doorknobs using the proper safety procedure.

Using A Ladder

If the home has an escape ladder, everyone should practice using it. Understanding how to use the ladder is very important. If the home does not have an escape ladder, purchase a ladder from a hardware store. The ladder should be placed next to the window.

Possible Meeting Locations

After everyone has learned the drills, the next step involves choosing a meeting place. The meeting place should be a location that is far away from the home. Common meeting places include the mailbox, the front lawn, or near a light post. After everyone escapes the home, everyone should go to the meeting place for a headcount.

Teaching Kids Fire Safety

Although escape plans and drills are useful, some kids may have issues understanding the procedures. Kids should not be scare during a fire, so use the drills to teach them about fire safety. Kids should practice the drills with a grownup so that they will not use unsafe escape procedures, such as exiting an upstairs window. There are also many different resources for teaching children rife safety.

Preparing The Home For Possible Fire Emergencies

Besides an escape plan, the home should be prepared for a possible fire as well. For this task, the proper fire safety equipment will be needed, such as smoke alarms. There should be an alarm in every room. Also, each door in the home should be easy to open. After the fire department is contacted, firefighters must arrive at the home with any problems. To prevent any problems, ensure that the street number from the road is visible. Firefighters usually access the home from different doors and windows. Because of this, if the home has security bars, ensure that the emergency release levers are working properly.