Fire Prevention Week: Practice Escape Plans, Test Smoke Alarms

National Fire Prevention Week is October 6 to 12, and the American Red Cross urges everyone to practice their home fire escape plan and test their smoke alarms.

“As cold weather increases the risk of home fires, please prepare your family now during Fire Prevention Week,” said Trevor Riggen, senior vice president, Red Cross Disaster Cycle Services. “Install and test smoke alarms on every level of your home, and practice your escape plan until everyone can get out in two minutes or less.”

In a typical home fire, you may have as little as one to two minutes to escape safely from the time the smoke alarm sounds. Escape planning and practice can help you make the most of the time you have, giving everyone enough time to get out.

Plan ahead for your escape:

• Include at least two ways to get out of each room in your home fire escape plan.
• Select a meeting spot at a safe distance away from your home, such as your neighbor’s home or landmark like a specific tree in your front yard, where everyone can meet.
• Practice your escape plan until everyone can get out in two minutes or less.
• Install smoke alarms on every level of your home, placing them inside and outside bedrooms, and sleeping areas.
• Test smoke alarms monthly, and change the batteries at least once a year, if your model requires it.

Children are most at risk during fires. In fact, children under five are twice as likely as other people to die in a home fire. In addition to including them in practicing your escape plan, parents should teach their children what smoke alarms sound like and what to do when they hear one.

Home fires take seven lives each day in the U.S., most often in homes without working smoke alarms. That’s why the Red Cross is working with partners to install free smoke alarms in high-risk communities and help families create escape plans through its Home Fire Campaign, which launched five years ago in October 2014.

Over the past five years, the campaign has saved at least 642 lives across the country by installing nearly 2 million free smoke alarms and making more than 793,000 households safer from the threat of home fires. Learn more about preparing and preventing home fires here.