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Home Escape Planning is the focus for
Fire Prevention Week 2007!
Remember:
Your ability to get out depends on planning, practice and
advance warning from smoke detectors!
Basic Fire Escape Planning
The Escape!
Escape Planning for Older Adults
Apartment & High-Rise Buildings
Security Bars
Basic
Fire Escape Planning
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Be sure to include all members of your family in every
step of your planning!
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Draw a home escape plan showing 2 ways out of
every room
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Establish a meeting place outside your home
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If you live in a home with 2 or more stories, purchase
escape ladders for the upper rooms and ensure everyone knows how to use them
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Practice, Practice, Practice!
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The Escape!
If a fire breaks out in your home, follow these tips to get
out safely:
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If there is smoke, stay low! Heat and
smoke rises.
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Check closed interior doors with the back of your hand.
If it is warm, use an alternate exit.
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Get out and stay out!
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Perform a head count at your family's meeting place.
If someone is missing, tell the firefighters.
If you're trapped in a room:
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Seal yourself in!
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Use duct tape, blankets, rugs, pillows or towels to
seal the doorways and vents.
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Remain near an open window and signal to the
firefighters.
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Escape Planning
for Older Adults
At age 65, people are twice as likely to be killed or injured in fires
compared to the population at large.
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If you live in a house, consider sleeping on the ground
level in a multi-story home
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Have a telephone installed where you sleep
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If you are deaf or hard of hearing, consider installing
smoke alarms that use flashing lights or vibration to alert you
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Make sure you are able to open all doors and windows in
your home
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Apartment &
High-Rise Buildings
Be aware that at times, your best choice in a tall building fire is to stay
put and wait for the firefighters to help you.
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Familiarize yourself with the building's evacuation
plan
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Never use the elevator in the event of a fire
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If you're unable to exit your room due to smoke or fire
in the hallway, get into a room with a window and call 9-1-1 to report your
exact location. Close all doors between you and the fire and use duct
tape or towels to seal the doorways and vents.
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Stay by a window and signal the firefighters when they
arrive.
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Security Bars
Sometimes objects that prevent a hazard, pose another one.
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Use emergency release devices inside
all barred doors and windows
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Emergency release devices for
security bars enable you to push the bars open from the inside, but they
don't affect the security provided outside
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These devices can involve pulling a
lever, pushing a button, stepping on a pedal or kicking in a lever on the
floor
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Make sure everyone in the household
knows how to operate the release devices.
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