Make a Plan for You and Your Family

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Family making an emergency plan together at home

Your ability to get out of your home during a fire depends on advance warning from smoke alarms and advance planning. Fire can spread rapidly through your home, leaving you as little as one or two minutes to escape safely once the smoke alarm sounds.

Escape Planning Tips

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 marking two ways out of each room, including windows and doors, and the location of each smoke alarm.
Install smoke alarms in every sleeping room, outside each sleeping area, and on every level of the home. When one sounds, they all sound. A closed door may slow the spread of smoke, heat, and fire.
When you walk through your plan, check that escape routes are clear and that doors and windows can be opened easily.
Choose an outside meeting place — a neighbor's house, light post, mailbox, or stop sign — a safe distance from your home where everyone can meet after escaping. Mark it on your escape plan.
Check that your street number is clearly visible from the road. If not, paint it on the curb or install house numbers so emergency personnel can find your home quickly.
Have everyone memorize the fire department's emergency phone number so any household member can call from outside once safely out.
If there are infants, older adults, or family members with mobility limitations, assign someone to assist them — and designate a backup in case that person isn't home.
If windows or doors have security bars, ensure they have emergency release devices so they can be opened immediately from inside.
Tell guests and visitors about your escape plan. When staying overnight elsewhere, ask about their plan — especially when children attend sleepovers.
When a smoke alarm sounds, get out immediately and stay out. If someone is missing, tell the fire department dispatcher — never re-enter a burning building.

Put Your Plan to the Test

Practice your home fire escape plan twice a year, making the drill as realistic as possible. Make arrangements for anyone in your home who has a disability.
Allow children to master escape planning before holding a nighttime drill. Telling children about the drill beforehand can be as effective as a surprise — the goal is practice, not fear.
Determine during drills whether children and others can readily wake to the sound of a smoke alarm. If not, assign someone to wake them in both drills and real emergencies.
If your home has two floors, every family member must be able to escape from the second floor. Escape ladders placed near windows can provide an additional route — practice from a first-floor window so you can use one quickly. Children should only practice with an adult.
Always take the escape route with the least smoke and heat, but practice escaping low under smoke if necessary. Closing doors on the way out slows fire spread and buys more time.
If smoke or fire blocks your exit, seal yourself in: close all doors between you and the fire, seal cracks with duct tape or towels, cover air vents, open windows slightly for fresh air, call 911 to report your location, and wave a flashlight or light-colored cloth at the window so firefighters can find you.

Clear Your Escape Routes

Items that block doors and windows could prevent escape in a home fire. Identify two escape routes out of each room and make sure they can be used safely by everyone in your household.

Plan for Your Whole Family

When disaster strikes, your family may not be together. Sit down with all household members, discuss what types of emergencies could affect your area, share contact information, and agree on how you'll reconnect if separated. Identify a familiar meeting place outside your neighborhood.

Sign up for emergency alerts so your household receives official warnings immediately. Register at SMCAlert.info

Consider the needs of all household members — including pets and overnight visitors. Visit Ready.gov for step-by-step guidance on building your family emergency plan.