Teaching children how to escape a fire in their home

Teaching Children How to Escape a Fire in Their Home

Escaping a Fire Step One: Fire crawl
There are two fire crawls you should teach children that are fairly simple. The most basic and most commonly used, is to get down on all fours like a dog, and then drop your forearms to the ground, and crawl on them with your nose to the floor like a dog sniffing something, like this:

The second type of fire crawl is only if the heat is too intense to have your rear end up in the air. This is similar, only instead of crawling on your knees, you press your legs flat on the floor, and use your forearms and leg motion to crawl around like a snake, like this:

Teach children the two different types of fire crawls, and practice with them. You can make some fun out of it by creating obstacle courses around your house for them to do the fire crawl with.

Escaping a Fire Step Two: The bed roll
The difference between the temperature at bed level and that towards the ceiling if a child sits up can be as much as a few hundred degrees in a fire. Because of this, children should learn how to roll out of their bed in the event of a fire.

Have children practice this a few times on their own bed to get used to it. If possible, set off your fire alarm while doing it, so that they learn to associate that sound with rolling out of their bed.

Escaping a Fire Step Three: Checking Doors
A flash over occurs when a fire is suddenly supplied with fresh oxygen. It creates a explosion like force that will consume a room. When a fire is burning in a room with a door closed, there may be little or no smoke actually coming through the bottom of the door. After all, smoke rises. That door is creating a natural barrier to the other side. But when that door is opened, it will supply the fire with a breath of fresh oxygen and create an explosive force that will instantly ignite the room.

Teach children how to test a door. Tell them to press the back of their hand against the door. If it feels hot to the touch, do not open it. If it feels cool or just a little bit warm, crack open the door slightly and peek outside. If everything is clear, proceed and close the door behind you. It’s important to close the door to slow the progress of the fire. Tell them to do this on every closed door they encounter.

·	Teach children to always open doors slowly, putting their shoulder against the door. If they see the fire right outside or lots of smoke suddenly comes in, shut the door immediately and choose another way.

·	Have your children test a door in your house under normal circumstances. Let them get a good idea for how it feels, so that they will not be unsure in a fire. Have them practice the technique for slowly opening it.