Make a Fire Escape Plan for Your Home #HomeFireDrillDay
on Oct 13, 2016
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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. All opinions are 100% mine.
Do you have a fire escape plan for your home? Children have fire drills at school and adults have fire drills at work, but many families don’t have a plan for fire safety at home. And sadly, homes are where the majority of fires take place. Saturday, October 15, 2016 is Home Fire Drill Day and I encourage you to make a fire escape plan and practice it with your family.
Make a Fire Escape Plan for Your Home #HomeFireDrillDay
Did you know that while fires can happen at any time, they are generally more common in the fall and winter? It makes sense to me – these are times when more people are burning fires and Christmas trees are often implicated in fires as well. As part of my ongoing ambassadorship with Nationwide Make Safe Happen, I’m pleased to tell that Saturday, October 15, 2016 has now been dedicated a new national observance day: Home Fire Drill Day. While we’ve read books and discussed fire safety, I must admit, we’ve never actually practiced home fire safety with our kids. This year, we will. I’ve pledged to do so here, and you can too.
Here are a few things you can do on Home Fire Drill Day to prepare your family!
- Check your smoke detectors to make sure they are working properly. Change batteries as needed.
- Designate a safe meeting point outside your home and make sure you kids understand what to do in the unlikely event of a fire.
- Map out an escape route from your home. You can download a printable form here! Come up with two different routes as one could be blocked during a fire.
- Try not to scare your children. Instead, find ways to make practicing the fire drill fun. The Home Fire Day Drill website has many games that your kids might enjoy playing. My favorite idea on the website is using commercial breaks, which are usually two minutes long, to practice exiting the home.
- Download the Home Fire Drill App here, and check out the 2 minute timer, calendar reminders, and home evacuation plan template.
- Finally, have a run through a fire drill with your family so everyone knows what to do when the smoke alarms sound.
Do you practice fire drills with your family? If not, what’s stopping you?
