Although you believe that you will never be the victim of a house fire, it is best to prepare yourself and know what to do to avoid panicking if it happens. Should a fire start in your home, your first priority should be to get out as quickly as possible with your family members. There is no time to stop and recover your valuables or even to save your beloved pet. When it comes to a house fire, timing is everything. If you want to know how to keep yourself safe and increase your chances of survival, follow these steps.
Steps
Part 1 of 3: Keeping Your Home Safe During a Fire
Step 1. React as soon as you hear the fire alarm
If the smoke detector or alarm goes on and you see fire, try to get out of your home as safely as possible. Don't try to grab your phone, valuables, or other important possessions. Your only concern should be getting out of the property safely with your family members. If it is night, shout loudly to wake everyone up. You may only have a few seconds to escape smoothly, so ignore any secondary thoughts you have, just think about keeping yourself alive.
Step 2. Safely exit the doors
If you see fire from under a door, then you can't use it to get out, as the smoke is toxic and the flames may prevent you from getting through. If you don't see any smoke, place the back of your hand on the door to feel if it's hot. In case it is cold, then slowly open it and go through it. If the door opens but you see flames that won't allow you to leave the room, close it to protect yourself from the fire.
If the door is hot or smoke passes underneath and there are no other doors you can go through, you will need to try to escape through a window
Step 3. Protect yourself from smoke inhalation
Get down to the floor and crawl onto your hands and knees to escape the smoke. While you think running is better, encourage your family to do the same. Smoke inhalations can bewilder people and even cause them to lose consciousness. Knowing this, you should cover your nose and mouth if you have to walk into a smoke-filled room.
You can also put a wet shirt or cloth over your nose and mouth, but only if you have time. This will take you less than a minute, which isn't that long, and helps filter out the combustion products that lead to smoke inhalation
Step 4. Stop, drop to the ground and roll on the floor if your clothes catch fire
In case what you are wearing catches fire, immediately stop doing what you were doing, throw yourself on the ground by completely lying down and roll on the ground until the fire is extinguished. Rolling will quickly muffle the fire. Cover your face with your hands as you roll to protect yourself.
Step 5. Avoid the fire if you can't get out
In case you can't escape your home and are waiting for them to help you, don't panic. Sure, you don't have a chance to escape, but you can still take some steps to avoid smoking and keep yourself safe. Close the door and cover all openings and crevices with a cloth or duct tape to keep the smoke away from you for as long as possible. Whatever you do, don't lose your temper. You can always devise a strategy to control smoking, even if you are trapped.
Step 6. Get help if you are on the second floor
In case you are trapped in a second floor room during the fire, do what you can to get close to an area where people can hear or see you. You can take a sheet or dress, preferably white, and hang it outside the window to indicate that you need help as soon as first responders arrive. Be sure to close the window - leaving it open draws fire towards the fresh oxygen. Put something to cover the bottom door opening, like a towel or whatever else you find.
Step 7. Escape from a second floor window if you can
If you have a two-story house, you should have an escape ladder to approach the window in case of a fire or other problem. In case you need to exit the window, with no other options available, locate the sill and, if there is, you can exit using this element; place your hands on it, finding yourself with your body hanging in front of the building. Always stand in front of the structure when you exit a window located on an upper floor. From the second floor, if you hang with your hands supporting the window, you are closer to the ground and you may let go and drop to safety.
The truth is, you will probably be much safer if you don't move and if you try to compartmentalize the area by closing the doors between you and the fire, preventing smoke from entering the room, putting something on your nose and mouth to filtering the air and hoping for the best
Part 2 of 3: What to Do Once Out of the House
Step 1. Count the people
If someone is missing, re-enter the building only if it is safe to do so. If you are concerned that someone is absent, tell the rescuers immediately upon their arrival. Similarly, if everyone is there, warn the firefighters anyway, so they don't send anyone to risk their life looking for other people.
Step 2. Call the local number for emergency services
Call 911 in North America, 000 in Australia, 111 in New Zealand, 115 in Italy and 999 in Great Britain (112 from mobile; this number has a priority in the UK mobile network because too many 999 calls are made unintentionally). 112 is the emergency number throughout Europe and you will be redirected to your local emergency number from the network if necessary. Use your cell phone or call from a neighbor's house.
Step 3. Do a wound assessment
After calling for help and while you wait for them to arrive, it's time to check both yourself and your family to make sure no one has been injured. In case someone has a problem, do what you can to stop them and, as soon as the firefighters arrive, you can ask for instructions and help.
Step 4. Walk away from the facility
Keep a safe distance between you and the fire. Take the necessary steps following the fire to stay safe.
Part 3 of 3: Preventing Future Fires
Step 1. Develop and practice a rescue plan for your family
The best way to prevent fires is to have your family have an escape plan in case this event occurs. You should form your plan and try it out at least twice a year to comfortably learn the routine and make sure you are clear enough to stick to it should the need arise. Here are some things to remember as you create it:
- Plan to find two ways to escape from each room. You should always look for a second way out in case the first is blocked. For example, if a door is blocked, you should find a way out through a different window or door.
- Practice escape by crawling on the ground, while in the dark and with your eyes closed.
Step 2. Make sure your home is prepared
To make sure your home is ready for a fire, check the operation of the smoke detectors and always have fresh batteries available. Check that the windows can be opened easily and that the mosquito nets can be removed quickly. If you have windows with security bars, they must have quick opening devices in order to be thrown open right away. All members of your family should know how to open and close them. If your property is ready for a fire, you will greatly improve your chances of keeping yourself safe in case it happens.
Buy folding ladders manufactured by a nationally recognized laboratory (such as the Underwriters Laboratory, UL, in the US) in case you need to use them to get off the roof
Step 3. Practice safe behaviors
To prevent the house from catching fire, here are some precautionary measures to take:
- Teach your kids that fire is a tool, not a toy.
- Always stay in the kitchen while cooking. Do not leave food on the fire unattended.
- Do not smoke in the house. Make sure you completely put out your cigarettes.
- Throw away all electronic devices with frayed wires, which could cause a fire.
- Avoid lighting candles unless you directly control them. Do not leave a lighted candle in a room where there is no one.
Advice
- Make sure the smoke detectors are working. A good way to remember this is to replace the batteries when you change the clock hands for daylight saving time (in areas where you do).
- Practice your escape plan with the whole family! It may never happen, but no one knows for sure and it's better to be safe than to have future problems.
- Store safety equipment in places where it can be found easily, including fire extinguishers and fire escapes (and learn how to use it). Check all fire extinguishers regularly (once a year is fine) and replace the defective ones.
- To feel if a door is hot, use the back of your hand, not your palms or fingers. The back has more nerve endings than the palm, allowing you to accurately determine the temperature of an object without actually coming into contact with it. Also, doors can get hot enough to burn without looking hot at all. You may need your palms and fingers later to escape.
- If you come into contact with fire, stop, throw yourself on the ground, roll on the ground And cover your face.
- Clean household devices regularly to prevent fires.
- Make sure you regularly test smoke detectors! They should be changed every five years. Do not forget.
Warnings
- Make sure everyone knows where to go after the escape. Choose a specific location, far enough away from the building to be safe, yet close enough to get there quickly and easily. Everyone must know to go directly to the meeting point and stop there until everyone is there.
- The most important rule, first of all, is to keep low. Hot smoke, which is toxic and / or burns, rises, so staying close to the ground can help you avoid inhaling smoke that has already entered the room or being burned. If the room is smoke-free, then you can stand up, but watch out for the new spaces you enter to avoid the same danger.
- During a fire, it is often impossible to go from one part of one property to another. Consequently, any family member old enough to do this MUST know how to get out of every room in the house, even if the doors used are usually inaccessible.
- Do not re-enter a burning building. Forget everything you've seen in movies and TV shows, when the hero of the situation enters the house despite the flames to make a rescue. This only happens in movies. In the real world, people who reenter homes that have been burned frequently die within walking distance of where they entered. Entering the facility will mean just another casualty for the firefighters.
