Practice, practice, practice
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. Also, mark the location of each smoke alarm. Allow children to master fire escape planning and practice before holding a fire drill at night when they are sleeping. The objective is to practice, not to frighten, so telling children there will be a drill before they go to bed can be as effective as a surprise drill.

Sounding the alarm
Based on a telephone survey done in 2004, 96 percent of all homes have at least one smoke alarm. According to the survey, only 8 percent of people said their first thought on hearing a smoke alarm would be to get out. Because fire can grow and spread so quickly, having working smoke alarms in your home can mean the difference between life and death.

Check your smoke alarms regularly
Test your smoke alarms at least once a month, following the manufacturer’s instructions and replace the batteries in your smoke alarm once a year, or when the alarm “chirps” warning that the battery is low.

In more than half of the reported fires in which the smoke alarms did not operate, batteries were missing or disconnected. Nuisance alarms were the leading reason for disconnecting smoke alarms. Roughly one of every five smoke alarm failures was due to dead batteries. Only 7 percent of the failures were due to hard-wired power source problems. Hard-wired smoke alarms operate on your household electrical current. Alarms that are hard-wired should have battery backup in case of a power outage, and should be installed by a qualified electrician.

Residential sprinklers
Sprinklers and smoke alarms together cut your risk of dying in a home fire 82 percent relative to having neither – a savings of thousands of lives a year.

The Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition, formed in 1996, has developed a variety of educational materials about the benefits of home fire sprinklers. These materials address common questions and misconceptions. They may be accessed through their Web site http://www.homefiresprinkler.org.

Older adults and people with disabilities
Older adults are also at greater risk of dying in a home fire than the population at large. Adults 65 and older face a risk twice that of the average person, while people 85 and older have a risk that is over four times that of the average person.

If you don’t live in an apartment building, consider sleeping in a room on the ground floor in order to make emergency escape easier. Make sure that smoke alarms are installed in every sleeping room and outside sleeping areas. Have a telephone installed where you sleep in case of emergency.

Conduct your own, or participate in, regular fire drills to make sure you know what to do in the event of a home fire. If you or someone you live with cannot escape alone, designate a member of the household to assist, and decide on backups in case the designee isn’t home. Fire drills are also a good opportunity to make sure that everyone is able to hear and respond to smoke alarms.

Great American Fire Drill’
During Fire Prevention Week 2007, NFPA is asking kids and families all across North America to practice their home fire escape plans. Just how big will the Great American Fire Drill be? With your help, we’re hoping to have the world’s biggest fire drill. Pick a date in October, make your plan, practice your escape drill and then go to www.sparky.org to make your drill count.