Ask the Fire Chief: Creating a Home Escape Plan

Fire Chief Herbert Griffin answers your questions about the Raleigh Fire Department, just ask.

Question: Why is it important to have an escape plan and how can I make one?

Answer: Having a home escape plan can be essential to your family’s life safety. Your ability to escape your home during a fire depends on advance warning from smoke alarms and advance planning. Fire can spread rapidly in lightweight residential construction, leaving you as little as one to two minutes to escape safely once the smoke alarm sounds.

Closed doors may slow the spread of smoke, heat, and fire. Installing smoke alarms in every sleeping area of your home and outside of each sleeping area can greatly increase early detection. Install smoke alarms on every level of your home, especially in cooking areas. 

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recommends these steps for escape planning:

• Pull together everyone in your household and make a plan. Walk through your home and inspect all possible exits and escape routes. Households with children should consider drawing a floor plan of your home, marking two ways out of each room, including windows and doors.
• Check to make sure the escape routes are clear, and doors and windows can be opened easily.
• Choose an outside meeting place a safe distance in front of your home where everyone can meet after they’ve escaped. 
• If there are infants, older adults, or family members with mobility limitations, make sure that someone is assigned to assist them.
• If windows or doors in your home have security bars, make sure the bars have emergency release devices inside so they can be opened in case of an emergency.
• Once you’re out, stay out! Under no circumstance should you ever go back into a burning building. Call 911!