Your ability to get out depends on advance warning from smoke alarms and advance planning. In a fire, seconds count. Seconds can mean the difference between residents of out community escaping safely from a fire or having their lives end in tragedy.

Some good practices to keep you and your family safe include:

• Draw a map of your home with all members of your household, marking two exits from each room and a path to the outside from each exit. 

• Practice your home fire drill twice a year. Conduct one at night and one during the day with everyone in your home, and practice using different ways out.

• Teach children how to escape on their own in case you can't help them.

• Make sure the number of your home is clearly marked and easy for the fire department to find.

• Close doors behind you as you leave - this may slow the spread of smoke, heat, and fire.

• Once you get outside, stay outside. Never go back inside a burning building.

• Teach children to STOP, DROP, and ROLL if their clothes should catch on fire.

• Make sure everyone knows how to call 9-1-1.

• Establish a family emergency communications plan and ensure that all household members know who to contact if they cannot find one another.

_{Information gathered from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the American Red Cross}