Many schools, pre-schools, and daycares will be having fire safety presentations during Fire Prevention Week. Along with these presentations they will be performing fire drills. These fire drills are used to familiarize and re enforce proper evacuation routes and practices. The goal is to have the proper actions be an automatic response whenever fire alarms sound, so that everyone safely evacuates the area in an orderly manner. This helps to prevent the fear of a very scary situation taking over, which may cause the children to panic, hide, or go the wrong way. It also creates accountability to ensure everyone has escaped the building safely.

Fire drills work very well in schools, but how often do you practice a fire drill at home with your families? Does everyone know how to get out if there is an emergency inside your home? Is there a meeting place everyone knows to assemble at once out so everyone can be accounted for?

Having an evacuation plan for your home as well as discussing and practicing it with your family, especially younger children, is just as if not more important than fire drills at school. This will also allow you to find any shortcomings in exits to your home in an emergency. Do you need fire ladders to drop from second floor windows? Which door should you use if one becomes blocked? Are the stairs safe? The only way to answer these questions is to make an evacuation plan and practice it. Ready.gov recommends practicing your escape plans at least twice a year. This is yet another important fire safety practice that can be done with the changing of the clocks.