Are you prepared to lead your family from a dark, smokey, burning building in the middle of the night? There certainly is no time for mistakes when a fire occurs. It can take less than two minutes for smoke fumes to overcome you, your children, and your pets. Create an escape plan for your family and practice it on a regular basis:

• Be aware of two ways to exit every room in your house
• If you live in a multi-story apartment building, map out as many routes as possible to exit stairways on your floors of the building
• If one of your escape routes in a second-or third-story window, consider investigating in a safety ladder
• If you live in a high-rise building, plane to use stairways, never elevators, to escape fire
• If you sleep with your bedroom doors CLOSED at night, be sure to have a smoke detector in each room

When should you evacuate your home? If your smoke detector goes off, check it. If it's in another room, place your hand on the door before opening it. If it's hot, don't open the door. If you do not smell smoke and the door is cool to the touch, slowly open the door and investigate the alarm.

If you smell smoke, or hear the sounds of fire, evacuate.

Here's what you should do:

• The smoke detector will sound the alarm to wake you and your family. You may also want to develop a special signal that all family members will understand to mean “danger,” perhaps a police whistle. Use this signal only in emergencies.
• When you hear the alarm, roll out of bed onto the floor. Get down on your hands and knees, crawl to your door and touch it with your hand.
• If the door feels cool, brace it with your body and open it just a crack to check for smoke. If there is none, leave by your planned escape route.
• Remember to keep low, don’t stop for clothes, papers or valuables, and keep your head down to avoid the smoke. CRAWL LOW UNDER SMOKE!
• Meet at a pre-arranged place for a head count.
• Never go back into a burning building.
• It is important to go over your fire escape plan with your family. Make sure everyone knows the local emergency phone number.
• Make sure guests as well as your family know the sound of your smoke detector’s alarm and are familiar with your plan of escape.
• Make sure babysitters practice fire and burn safety tips, especially the use of safety ladders, escape routes, fire extinguishers, smoke detectors and emergency phone numbers.

IMPORTANT: Check the performance of your smoke detector every month. Replace the batteries when the time changes (spring and fall).