The Goal of the Porter Fire Department is Fire Safety... What’s yours?

Every home should have a structured plan in the event of a fire emergency. Below are steps to putting an emergency escape plan together with your family. Also, remember that is important to teach your children about fire safety.

Meeting Place

Choose an outside meeting place (i.e. neighbor's house, mailbox, or stop sign) that is a safe distance from your home where everyone can meet after they have followed the emergency escape plan. Be sure to mark the location of the meeting place on your emergency escape plan.

Assign

In support of fire safety in the home, it's important to anybody in the residence with mobility limitations, such as; infants, older adults, or family members. Be sure to assign someone to assist them in the event of a fire emergency. Assign a backup person too, in case the person assigned is not home during the fire emergency.

Check Emergency Releases

If windows and doors in your home have security bars, make sure that the bars have emergency release devices inside so that they can be opened immediately should a fire emergency occur. Having emergency release devices won't compromise your security. They will only increase your chances of safely escaping which is the main goal of a fire safety plan.

Prepare

Be fully prepared for a real fire when a smoke alarm sounds during a home fire emergency and get out immediately. Residents of high-rise and apartment buildings may be safer "defending in place" (relocating occupants to a safer location on the same floor rather then being evacuated).

If a Fire Starts

• Know how to safely operate a Fire Extinguisher. 
• Remember to GET OUT STAY OUT and Call 9-1-1
• LEave all your belongings and save yourself. Yell "FIRE!!" and go outside immediately.
• If you are in a multi story building, always take the stairs and not the elevators.
• If door handles or closed doors are hot to the touch or smoke blocks your primary exit route, try another way. Never open doors that are warm to the touch.
• If you must escape through smoke, get low and crawl under the smoke to your exit. Make sure you close the doors behind you. 
• If smoke, heat or flames block your exit routes, stay in the room with the door closed, Place a wet towel or blanketunder the crack of the door to keep smoke out.
• Attempt to exit through the window if that is an option or open the window to signal for help.

Stay Out

Once you're out of the home and away from the fire emergency source, STAY OUT! Under no circumstances should you go back into a burning building. If someone is still missing, inform a department dispatcher when you call or a firefighter. Firefighters have the skills and equipment to perform rescues.

Exit Strategy

Do you know how to get out when there is a home fire emergency? A home fire exit strategy is critical. Your home fire exit strategy will need to be enforced by you and your loved ones in a fire emergency. It is important to have two different ways to escape a burning building as one may become blocked. For more information please contact Texas State Fire Marshal

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