Mini Challenges: Create a Fire Escape Plan

Our Nov. 1 mini-challenge will be to create and practice a fire escape plan for your family.

Here is a link to the Red Cross's information on home fires. They will have ideas, suggestions, and tools for helping to create your plan.

Make sure that you know special circumstances about your home, such as multi story, basement apartment, etc, that may need to be addressed in your escape plan.

For those of you who may have multi-story homes, you may want to get a fire escape ladder (if your home is not already equipped with such a resource). Here are a couple of places on-line that sell them:

Fire Escape Systems
Amazon.com

You can also check with your local hardware or home improvement store (such as Home Depot or Lowes. Home Depot sells the ladders on-line) for these ladders or similar fire escape systems.

Get your kids and spouse involved, make it a family affair, and make sure everyone knows and practices the escape plan.

Mini Challenges

Starting on Nov. 1, we are going to start issuing "mini-challenges". On the 1st (first) and 15th (fifteenth) of every month, we will issue a new challenge. This means you'll have 2 weeks to complete each challenge. Don't worry, they won't be too hard.

The idea is take baby steps, and do one little thing at a time.

Monthly Focus: Making a Plan - Updates

We had our first Provident Living meeting, and we discussed creating our Emergency Plans.

Here is the text of the worksheet I created for the meeting (you can copy and paste into a Word document):

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A. Consider Family Size and Composition, and take into account specific needs for different individuals:
_____ Children (0-3 years)
_____ Children (3-12 years)
_____ Children (12-18 years)
_____ Adults (18-65)
_____ Adults (65 and over)

B. Get Informed About your area:
__ Local concerns or issues
__ Community Disaster Plans
__ School and Workplace Disaster Plans
__ Emergency Warning Systems


C. Discuss different disaster situations and know which ones apply to your area:
__ Blackouts
__ Chemical Emergencies
__ Drought
__ Earthquakes
__ Fires
__ Floods
__ Heat Waves
__ Hurricanes
__ Mudslides
__ Terrorism
__ Thunderstorms
__ Tornado
__ Tsunami
__ Volcanoes
__ Wild Fires
__ Winter Storms


D. Be sure to know how to care for pets, persons with disabilities, the elderly, or special medical conditions, as they apply for your situation.


E. Pick two places to meet:

Near your home in case of a sudden emergency, like a fire.
__________________________________________________________________________

Outside your neighborhood in case of a disaster which prevents you from returning home. Make sure everyone in the family knows the address and phone number.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________



F. Choose Emergency Contacts, and make sure family members know contact information:

__ Local
___________________________________________________________________________

__ Out of State
___________________________________________________________________________

__ Out of Country
___________________________________________________________________________


G. Complete This Checklist:
__ Post emergency telephone numbers by phones (fire, police, ambulance, etc.).
__ Teach children how and when to call Emergency Medical Services number for emergency help. (Remember that 9-1-1 isn't universal, so find out what your EMS number is)
__ Teach each capable family member how and when to turn off the utilities (including but not limited to, water, gas, electricity). This will likely require you to find the utility “mains” to your home.
__ Review your insurance coverage, and make sure that you have contact information for the insurance company.
__ Get training on how to use a fire extinguisher (ABC type), make sure all family members know how to use them, and show them where they are kept. This may mean you need to buy one. You can usually find them at many discount, hardware, and auto stores.
__ Install smoke detectors on each level of your home, especially near bedrooms and kitchens. Consider installing Carbon Monoxide detectors as well (especially important if you use Natural gas or other utility sources which can produce the fumes).
__ Find and correct any hazards that may exist in your home.
__ Stock emergency supplies and assemble a Disaster Supplies Kit (aka a 72-hour kit). Information on what you may need for this kit can be found at www.redcross.org.
__ Place Disaster Supplies Kit in easily accessible area, and make sure everyone knows where it is.
__ Take a first aid and CPR class, and make sure all eligible family members are also trained.
__ Determine the best escape routes from your home. Find two ways out of each room. Make sure family members know how to get out of commonally used rooms (family rooms, living rooms), and how to get out their own bedrooms.
__ Find the safest places in your home for each type of disaster, and the fastest route to those places. Make sure everyone knows where to go and how to get there.


H. WRITE YOUR PLAN DOWN!! Make sure you have your plan well documented, and have it somewhere family members can easily look at/access it. For younger children consider adding picture aids to help them understand and remember specific parts of the plan.


I. Practice and Maintain Your Plan

• Remind your kids every few months or so about the plan. Review information they may have forgotten, or information that has changed.
• Commit a weekend, a holiday or other family time to updating telephone numbers, buying or replacing emergency supplies and reviewing your emergency plan with everyone.
• Conduct fire and emergency evacuation drills regularly. Consider focusing them around times that are memorable (Daylight savings time switch, holidays, birthdays), so you don't forget to do them!
• Rotate and replace stored water and stored food in your Disaster supplies kits as needed. Make sure to stay on top of expiration dates.
• Test and recharge your fire extinguisher(s) according to the manufacturer's instructions. Your local fire station personnel can likely show you how to do both.
• Test your smoke detectors at least monthly and change the batteries at least once a year. Consider scheduling battery changes during memorable times, such as the Daylight Savings time switches (semi-annually).

Remember to make use of the many resources that are available on this subject. If you have questions, most local Red Cross chapters can offer help on making an Emergency or Disaster Plan. Your community may also have resources to help with this planning. Consider contacting your community's emergency management agency for help or information.

You can also visit the following websites for more information:

The American Red Cross
Ready.Gov
Prepare.org
FEMA (also has a section of resources to be used specifically with children)
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Remember to check out the links at the end of the worksheet for a lot of great information. You can usually contact your local Red Cross chapter for detailed information on local concerns or disasters.

Use the resources to help you make a plan that works for your family. Not all the plans will be the same. Even if you just make a fire escape plan, something is better than nothing!

Monthly Focus: Making a Plan

Every month, we will try to focus on a specific topic within the realm of Provident Living. This month, our focus will be on creating a disaster plan.

Everyone needs to have a WRITTEN disaster plan, and that plan needs to be shared (and practiced) with every member of the family.

What your plan includes will depend largely on where you live (so if you live in hurricane country your plan might be different from someone who lives in earthquake country), your family composition, and the resources available in your area (such as family nearby, local emergency services, hotels, etc.).

There are several resources for ideas and advice on creating your disaster plan.

The Department of Homeland Security has created Ready.gov, which has a variety of Emergency Preparedness resources. They have several documents and brochures that can help you.

One important worksheet they have is a Family Emergency Plan worksheet, on which you can record important vital information on family members, emergency contact information, and other important data.

The American Red Cross also provides a comprehensive range of preparedness resources. They have a section dedicated to making an Emergency Plan, which can give you some great ideas on how to get yours started.

In addition to information on the Emergency Plan, the Red Cross also offers advice on Evacuation Planning and Sheltering in Place (in case you can't get out during a disaster or emergency), which are important components in making your Disaster Plan.

You can also find information on how to prepare for a variety of natural and man-made disasters and situations. This information can be helpful for those living in areas with specific concerns (such as hurricanes and tornadoes).

So here is the challenge for the month:

1. Read through these resources.
2. Get ideas about what your plan needs to include (based on your specific circumstances and family composition).
3. Hold a family meeting and talk about what your plan will be.
4. WRITE YOUR PLAN DOWN. Just talking about it isn't enough. You need to have a concrete plan that is written down. You also need to remember to periodically review the written plan, and make changes if necessary. If you have small children who cannot read, it may help to create a picture guide to go along with the written plan.
5. KNOW THE PLAN. Share the final plan with all family members, and make sure that each individual knows what they should do in the event of an emergency or disaster.
6. PRACTICE YOUR PLAN!! It won't do you any good if you don't use it. This part is especially important when you have young children who may not be able to simply memorize the ideas. Practicing the plan will also help reduce the stress and fear that you may face during an actual emergency.

Making your plan is an important first step to being prepared, and that is our goal for this month, to take that first step.

Please share your ideas, your struggles, your advice, your successes with this monthly challenge.

I'll post more information as I find it out!