Plan Your Family's Escape

Can your family survive a fire in your home? Most fatal fires occur at night when your family is sleeping. It’s not enough to have a working smoke alarm – protect your family by planning and practicing a home fire escape plan.

Make a Family Escape Plan

  • Use graph paper to draw a floor plan of your home or apartment.
  • Draw all floors in your home.
  • Include all windows and doors.
  • Label each sleeping area.
  • Show stairways and number of stairs at each stairway.
  • Show two ways out of each room by using arrows.
  • Use the stairs to exit buildings. Elevators can trap you or take you right to the fire.
  • Pick a meeting place outside.

Discuss & Practice Your Family Escape Plan

  • Discuss the escape routes with everyone in your home.
  • Teach everyone in your home how to unlock and open windows and doors.
  • Get the whole family involved and practice the plan with a realistic fire drill.
  • Since most fires occur in the early morning hours, have your family members pretend they are sleeping.
  • Make the house dark as if it is filled with smoke.
  • Begin the fire drill with the sounding of your fire alarm, making sure everyone can clearly hear and recognize the sound.
  • Assign someone to wake a child or older adult.
  • Have family members practice escaping through smoke by crawling low on hands and knees.
  • Have family members close the doors behind them.
  • Practice placing a hand on a wall to prevent getting lost.
  • Remind family members not to stop to get dressed or collect possessions.
  • Practice stop, drop and roll  - drop to the ground, cover your face to protect the face and lungs, and roll over and over to smother the flames. This technique is used to smother the flames if clothes catch fire.
  • Follow your planned escape all the way through to the outside meeting.
  • Make sure everyone knows how to dial 911 as you get outside and give your address to the operator.
  • Have a family fire drill twice a year to practice the plan.

If your fire escape has security bars or gates, make sure it is FDNY approved for fire escape windows. Use only thumb-turn door locks on the interior side of exit doors. Locks that require a key to open from the inside are illegal and unsafe.

Review additional fire safety information to keep your family safe: Prevention, Escape Practice Tips, Home Fire Safety, Apartment Fire Safety, Smoke Alarms, Doors and Windows.

Stay safe and informed. Sign up for our Email News bulletins. You’ll get alerts and new safety tips as soon as they are available, breaking news and information, and promotions and events announcements.