During a Fire

 If your clothes catch on fire, you should:

Stop, drop, and roll – until the fire is extinguished.  Running only makes the fire burn faster.

To escape a fire, you should:

Check closed doors for heat before you open them.  If you are escaping through a closed door, use the back of your hand to feel the top of the door, the doorknob, and the crack between the door and the doorframe before you open it.  Never use the palm of your hand or fingers to test for heat – burning those areas could impair your ability to escape a fire (i.e. ladders and crawling).

Hot Door:  Do not open.  Escape through a window.  If you cannot escape, hang a white or light-colored sheet outside the window, alerting fire fighters to your presence.

Cool Door:  Open slowly and ensure fire and/or smoke is not blocking your escape route.  If your escape route is blocked, shut the door immediately and use an alternate escape route, such as a window.  If clear, leave immediately through the door and close it behind you.  Be prepared to crawl.  Smoke and heat rise.  The air is clearer and cooler near the floor.

Crawl low under any smoke to your exit – heavy smoke and poisonous gases collect first along the ceiling.  In a fire, heat at the floor level is 90 degrees, at head height the temperature is 600 degrees and at the ceiling the temperature is 800 degrees.  Heat at over 150 degrees will knock you unconscious and kill you.

 Close doors behind you as you escape to delay the spread of the fire.

Stay out once you are safely out.  Do not reenter.  Call 9-1-1.

Did you know?  a fire burning in a house for 1 minute grows to 3 times its original size.  In 4 minutes it grows to 11 times it size, and in 6 minutes, it reaches 50 times it original size.