Fire escape plan

What It Means

A fire escape plan is a household's agreed route out of the home if there's a fire. The U.S. Fire Administration and NFPA describe it as a floor plan marking two ways out of every room, a meeting place outside in front of the home, and a drill everyone practices at least twice a year. The plan exists because people may have less than 2 minutes to get out once a smoke alarm goes off.

How It Sounds at Home

• "If the alarm goes off, we meet at the mailbox."
• "Your second way out is the window, and the ladder is under the bed."
• "Fire drill tonight after dinner, everybody."

The Breakdown

Make the plan

1. Draw a floor plan of the home. USFA offers a printable grid for it.
2. Mark two ways out of every room, counting windows as well as doors. For a room on an upper floor, the second way out can be an escape ladder.
3. Choose one meeting place outside, in front of the home, where everyone gathers.
4. Buhata's own suggestion: give a copy to anyone who stays in the home, including a sitter.

Practice it

1. Run a home fire drill at least twice a year with everyone who lives there.
2. Start it by pressing the smoke alarm's test button, as USFA suggests, so the drill begins with the real sound.
3. Practice staying low if there's smoke, and feeling a door before opening it. If it's hot, use the other way out.
4. Meet at the outside spot and practice calling 911 from there.

Try it today. Sketch the floor plan tonight and mark the second way out of each bedroom, then pick a date for the first drill.

Good to Know

Once you're outside, stay out and don't go back in for anything, according to USFA and Ready.gov, and make the 911 call from out there. NFPA and USFA both put the drill at a minimum of twice a year. USFA's floor plan counts windows as well as doors when you mark the two ways out, and Buhata suggests using the drill to check that each marked window actually opens. Keep smoke alarms working too, since the plan only starts once someone hears one.

Related Terms and Categories

• Smoke detector testing

  Pressing a smoke alarm's test button once a month to make sure it sounds, and replacing the alarm 10 years after the date it was made.

• Fire extinguisher

  A handheld tank that sprays an agent to put out a small fire, labeled with the classes of fire (such as A, B and C) it is approved for.

• Carbon monoxide detector

  An alarm that sounds when carbon monoxide, a poisonous gas, builds up to a dangerous level in the air of a home.

• Family emergency plan

  A written plan a household agrees on ahead of time for how it will reach each other, where it will meet and what it will do in a disaster or emergency.

• Emergency kit

  A packed set of water, food, light, first aid and other basics that lets a household get through several days on its own after a disaster.

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