Preparedness

September is National Preparedness month and I am super excited to focus on emergency preparedness all month long on the blog.

In the first week, I introduced our theme for the month with this blog post —> 3 Home Emergency Plans Your Family Needs To Create.

That post was an overview of everything we are going to discuss for the month.

But today, I want to talk about creating a fire emergency plan for your family.

This will help you plan and teach your family what to do in the event of a house fire.

Whip up a home fire plan to protect your family with these FREE resources.

Not sure how to prepare for a house fire? This FREE PDF packet includes a checklist, instructions on what to do in a fire and a fire plan map to draw your house escape routes.

When you sign up for our email list, you will get this PDF for free, along with weekly emails covering topics on gardening, homesteading, etc. Don't worry. We won't spam your inbox. You can unsubscribe any time.

I wanna be prepared!

Your Family Fire Emergency Plan

Having a house fire is every parent’s nightmare. You never want your family to be in danger and you don’t want to lose your belongings either.

House Fire: An emergency everyone needs to prepare for

As many of you know, we had a house fire in April 2014, while we were out of town on Spring Break. Here is the link if you would like to read more —> When The Unthinkable Happens: Lessons from a House Fire.

I hope no one reading this ever has this happen to them, but just in case it does, I want you and your family to be prepared.

Since we weren’t home, we didn’t have the opportunity to use the fire plan we had made.

But our family was safe and did not have to endure the trauma of living through a house fire. That is truly a blessing for our family.

9 Steps to Making and Implementing a Fire Emergency Plan

1. Involve everyone in making the plan

• This plan includes everyone in your family, so get them all involved in making it.
• You can have kids draw it out and make suggestions during the process.
• The more fun you make it, the more they will remember it when the time comes to take action.

2. Make sure you have smoke alarms installed

• Install smoke alarms inside each bedroom, outside each sleeping area and on every level of the home, including the basement.
• On levels without bedrooms, install alarms in the living areas or near the stairway to the upper level, or both.
• Make sure you have the kind of alarms that when one alarm goes off, they all go off. This will make sure the whole house hears the alarm.
• Make sure to change the batteries as needed.

3. Buy and learn how to use a fire extinguisher

• Make sure you have at least one fire extinguisher in your home.
• Let everyone in the house know where it is in case of fire (under the kitchen sink is a great location).
• Have all adults and teens learn how to use it.
• Using a fire extinguisher may keep a small fire from getting out of hand.

4. Make an exit plan for your house

• Draw a map of your house.
• Let the kids help to keep them involved.
• Identify 2 exits for each room in the house.
• Mark on the map where the fire extinguisher is located.

5. Make sure the exits are clear and doors and windows are easily opened

• Walk around your house and make sure that your map is accurate.
• Make sure there is nothing blocking doorways, which could block an exit in a fire.
• Check all windows to see if you can open them. Sometimes old windows get painted shut or broken. These should be fixed for your family’s safety.
• Purchase or learn how to make ladders for upstairs rooms and keep them in the closet for that room. Have everyone practice using them.

6. Have a meeting place for an emergency

• Discuss with your family where your outside meeting place will be in case of a fire.
• It should be away from the house but still visible so everyone can find it.
• It should not be too far away so everyone can be accounted for when the fire department arrives.

7. Make sure your street numbers are visible for emergency personnel

• I always thought this advice was strange. Can’t they tell where the fire is?
• This advice is not only for fires, but also for health emergencies.
• If you have a curb in front of your house (we don’t here in the country), make sure your house numbers are painted on it with glow in the dark paint.

8. Practice your plan with a home fire drill.

• A plan is only as good as the action it creates.
• So once your family finishes their plan, walk everyone thru what should take place in case of a fire.
• Then wait a week or so and have a fire drill to test their knowledge.
• After that, a yearly fire drill should do the trick to keep them fresh on what to do.

9. Teach children how to call 911 (or the fire department)

• You don’t expect that a child should be home alone to call the fire department.
• But what if their caretaker gets hurt and can’t call for themselves.
• This is a skill that they should know to save themselves and others.
• You can put a large reminder on your refrigerator and show them where it is in case they forget the numbers or get scared.
• Whenever someone is home alone, make sure there is access to a cell phone or landline for emergencies.

8 Tips for what to do when a fire happens

1. If it is a small fire, try to use the fire extinguisher to put it out.

This is only if you feel confident using the fire extinguisher and the fire hasn’t spread yet.

2. When a smoke alarm sounds, get out immediately.

You can ignore this if you burned something while cooking. But if it is the middle of the night, get out as soon as you hear the alarm.

3. Choose the escape route that is the safest.

You have identified 2 exits for each room, so choose the one that has less smoke and/or fire in it.

4. Get low to avoid smoke as you exit.

If you must go thru smoke, get down on your hands and knees and crawl to safety. Smoke rises, so this is the safest place.

5. Close doors behind you to slow down the spread of the fire.

If no one is behind you, close the doors in the rooms you pass thru to slow down the fire.

6. Stop, drop and roll

Kids are taught this in school for a good reason. If your clothes catch on fire, stop where you are, drop on the floor and roll until the fire goes out.

7. Call the fire department from outside your home.

Get out of the house first (if you can) and then call the fire department. If you can’t get out, put a wet towel under the closed door and make the call.

8. Once you are out, stay out.

It is tempting to want to go back into the house for other people or sentimental items, but this only puts more people in danger. The firemen are more equipped for rescues and will have to rescue less people if you don’t go back in to save someone else.

Here is a cute video to show your kids, so they can learn about fire safety basics:

Now that we have identified the hazards, let’s move forward with our plan.

Click on the box below to get the free PDF worksheets to help you put together your family fire emergency plan.

Once you have used the worksheets to write out your plan, plan a family activity where you can go over the plan and what needs to be done to implement it during an emergency.

I know that all of this planning may seem like a waste of time. But if you actually have a house fire (big or small), you will be thankful you took the time to educate your family and help them get through it well.

Here are the links to the other posts in this series for further reading:

3 Home Emergency Plans Your Family Needs to Create

Create Your Family Emergency Evacuation Plan with Free Printables

Create A Stay At Home Emergency Plan for Your Family with Free Printables

Where do you keep your family fire emergency plan? Let us know in the comments below. And if you found this post helpful, please share. Thanks!

Whip up a home fire plan to protect your family with these FREE resources.

Not sure how to prepare for a house fire? This FREE PDF packet includes a checklist, instructions on what to do in a fire and a fire plan map to draw your house escape routes.

When you sign up for our email list, you will get this PDF for free, along with weekly emails covering topics on gardening, homesteading, etc. Don't worry. We won't spam your inbox. You can unsubscribe any time.

I wanna be prepared!

September is National Preparedness month and I am super excited to focus on emergency preparedness all month long on the blog.

Last week, I introduced our theme for the month with this blog post —> 3 Home Emergency Plans Your Family Needs To Create.

That post was an overview of everything we are going to discuss for the month.

Are you worried about possible emergency evacuations in your area?

Make your evacuation as smooth as possible with this FREE PDF packet. It includes an evacuation plan worksheet, tips and printable child emergency identification cards.

When you sign up for our email list, you will get this PDF for free, along with weekly emails covering topics on gardening, homesteading, etc. Don't worry. We won't spam your inbox. You can unsubscribe any time.

I need this!

But today, I want to talk about creating an evacuation plan for your family.

This will help you plan for evacuations due to forest fire, hurricanes or other big emergencies.

Your Family Emergency Evacuation Plan

If you have to leave your home in an emergency evacuation, you need to make a plan of where to go, what to take and how to meet up with other family members.

Having a discussion about these things before hand can make a big difference in the success of the evacuation.

1. Where do we go?

• Have 2 meeting places for an emergency, one outside the home and one outside the neighborhood (in case of emergency when your family is away from home).
• Make notes in your phone or on cards in your wallet to remind you of where these meeting places are.
• If you live in a hurricane area, know your community evacuation plan and practice driving it from your house. Also listen to the local radio for directions at the time of evacuation.
• Plan ahead to go to a family or friend’s home in case of evacuation. Let these people know they are part of your plan so they can prepare as well.

2. What should we take with us?

• 72 Hour kit (click here to see how to put one together)
• Important Personal Documents (click here to learn how to store these items)
• Keep extra gasoline at home to fill your tank before you evacuate
• If you have time, grab other personal items such as computers, scrapbooks, heirlooms, etc.

3. What do I do with my animals?

• Take them with you. If you can take animals with you (especially a dog or cat), do that. If you have a trailer, you might be able to take some livestock as well.
• Move them to a safer location. If you have a barn or building away from harms way, you can put them there with extra food and water.
• Release them. If you can’t take care of them, the most humane thing to do is to release them and let them find their own way to safety.
• Identify them. Use branding or other ways of identification so that you might find them later. Hopefully, when you come back to your home you can find some of your animals that didn’t go too far.

4. How will I communicate with my family?

• Phone. Cell phones may or may not work, depending on the situation. You can buy wind up or solar chargers to keep your phone charged for a longer time.
• Text. Sometimes when a phone call can’t get through, a text can. It takes less bandwidth to send a text than to make a phone call.
• Email. Email is a good way to communicate your plans with others in times of emergency.
• Social media. Making a post on social media lets everyone on your friends list know that you are safe and okay during an emergency situation.
• Landline. While cell phone service may be out, landline phones (if you still have one) may still work, even during a power outage.

Are you worried about possible emergency evacuations in your area?

Make your evacuation as smooth as possible with this FREE PDF packet. It includes an evacuation plan worksheet, tips and printable child emergency identification cards.

When you sign up for our email list, you will get this PDF for free, along with weekly emails covering topics on gardening, homesteading, etc. Don't worry. We won't spam your inbox. You can unsubscribe any time.

I need this!

7 Evacuation Plan Tips To Help You Stay Calm in a Time of Crisis

1. Involve everyone in making the plan.

• This plan includes everyone in your family, so get them all involved in making it.
• You can have kids draw it out or make a list of items they want to take with them.
• You can allow kids to add a couple of fun items to their 72 hour kits.
• The more fun you make it, the more they will remember it when the time comes to take action.

2. Gather important phone numbers.

I don’t know about you, but ever since I got a cell phone I have been terrible at remembering phone numbers.

Make sure that everyone (including kids) have important phone numbers programmed in their phones.

Also, make a written list to keep with your important documents in case your phone dies and you don’t have access to them anymore.

3. Teach young children vital information in case they get lost.

Young children should know their:

• Full name
• Home address
• Phone number of parents
• Parents’ full names

You can also put this information in their backpacks when they are at school or other activities.

4. Make sure everyone in the family knows where emergency items are stored.

While making your evacuation plan, go thru the house and show everyone in the family where important things are stored.

That way, if only some of the family members are home when an evacuation is called for, they will know what to grab and where it is located.

Important emergency items may include 72 hour kits, important documents, extra cash, first aid kit, etc.

5. Know how to turn off water, gas and electricity in your home.

In an evacuation situation, you may want to turn off your utilities before you leave your house.

All adults and teens should know where these are located in your home and how to turn them off.

This could prevent explosions, flooding or other extra problems while you are gone.

6. Keep your vehicles at least half full of gas at all times.

You’ve seen the stories on the news. Long gas lines are always present during an evacuation situation.

If you have at least half a tank of gas in your vehicles at all times, you will probably be able to drive farther out of harms way than your neighbor before you have to get gas.

This can save you time and money, as gas price gouging is sometimes present during emergency situations.

If you are able to store gasoline to fill your car before you leave (as mentioned above), you would be able to get even farther.

7. Make extra plans for those with disabilities

If you have a family member that needs extra time or medical accommodations, make sure you account for those in your evacuation plan.

• Do you have extra medication on hand?
• Do they need special transportation?
• Do they have extra equipment they need to take such as oxygen tanks, wheel chairs, etc.?

These ideas are great, but they won’t work to keep your family safe unless you follow thru with their answers.

So click on the box below and download the free PDFs that will help you complete your emergency evacuation plan.

Are you worried about possible emergency evacuations in your area?

Make your evacuation as smooth as possible with this FREE PDF packet. It includes an evacuation plan worksheet, tips and printable child emergency identification cards.

When you sign up for our email list, you will get this PDF for free, along with weekly emails covering topics on gardening, homesteading, etc. Don't worry. We won't spam your inbox. You can unsubscribe any time.

I need this!

Then, once you have it written out, plan a family activity where you can go over the plan and what needs to be done to implement it during an emergency.

If you have an evacuation emergency, you won’t have much time to get these things together. And you don’t want to be fighting people at the grocery store or the gas station for the things your family needs.

So prepare your family now and save yourself time and hassle later. It is worth the effort to keep your family safe in an emergency. You got this!

Here are the links to the other posts in this series for further reading:

3 Home Emergency Plans Your Family Needs to Create

Create A Fire Emergency Plan to Prepare Your Family with Free Printables

Create A Stay At Home Emergency Plan for Your Family with Free Printables

Have you experienced an evacuation before? What did you forget to take that you wish you had? Let us know in the comments below. And if you found this post helpful, please share. Thanks!

Are you worried about possible emergency evacuations in your area?

Make your evacuation as smooth as possible with this FREE PDF packet. It includes an evacuation plan worksheet, tips and printable child emergency identification cards.

When you sign up for our email list, you will get this PDF for free, along with weekly emails covering topics on gardening, homesteading, etc. Don't worry. We won't spam your inbox. You can unsubscribe any time.

I need this!

It’s September, which is National Emergency Preparedness month.

We can’t plan for everything, but we can plan for the most likely thing.

So this month, each week I am going to discuss a home emergency plan in detail with printable information you can use to accomplish each task.

Prepare for Emergencies WITHOUT Building a Bunker in the Woods

Want to prepare for emergencies, but aren't sure you have enough time or space to store a bunch of stuff? Keep it simple by getting our checklist so you only store the essentials. This FREE PDF will show you what you need to keep your family safe and prepared in any scenario.

When you sign up for our email list, you will get this PDF for free, along with weekly emails covering topics on gardening, homesteading, etc. Don't worry. We won't spam your inbox. You can unsubscribe any time.

I'm so ready!

This week, I want to cover each plan broadly, so you get an idea of what we will be discussing the rest of the month.

Why are making emergency plans important?

As we get started, I want you to think about where you live.

What natural disasters have happened there recently?

What natural disasters have happened there historically?

If you have lived anywhere for very long at all, you know what disasters you might come in contact with.

Let’s look at a map of the United States and how different areas were affected by disasters in 2017.

As you can see, almost every part of the country was affected by disasters in 2017, and these are only the really big ones.

There are other small fires, droughts, tornados and floods that aren’t on this map.

In our area, in the last 2 years, we have had a drought, forest fires and then record amounts of snow that closed down roads and flooded rivers. I don’t think they amounted to billion dollar disasters, but they reaked havoc here at home.

So when you think of your home, what disasters do you have in your area? How can you make these things easier to deal with by being prepared ahead of time?

Each week this month, I will add a post about each one of these plans and come back here to add the link so you can follow along. But first, an overview of what’s to come. . .

3 Home Emergency Plans Your Family Needs to Create

1. Your Evacuation Plan

If you have to leave your home in an emergency evacuation, you need to make a plan of where to go, what to take and how to meet up with other family members.

Having a discussion about these things before hand can make a big difference in the success of the evacuation.

• Where do we go?
• What should we take with us?
• What do I do with my animals?
• How will I communicate with my family?

Leaving your home without knowing what will happen to your belongings can be traumatizing for you and your family. But preparing ahead of time can help you remember the big stuff and help you make the best out of the situation.

2. Emergency Fire Plan

As many of you know, we lost our home to a house fire in 2014. You can read the blog post about it here —> When the Unthinkable Happens: Lessons from a House Fire.

We were on vacation when our home burned down, so we didn’t need our emergency fire plan.

But that isn’t the case most of the time, so an emergency fire plan is a way to prepare your family for a house fire and help them know what to do if it happens.

• We go thru your home’s exits and how to make an escape plan.
• How to choose a meeting place.
• How to prevent home fires.
• How to keep your family safe in a fire.

A house fire is something I never thought would happen to us. It was devastating to us and it took us several years to recover.

I hope you don’t ever need this plan, but if you do you will be happy you took the time to prepare ahead of time.

3. Stay At Home Plan

The last plan we will be discussing this month is the stay at home plan.

Not all emergencies require you to leave your home.

Examples of a stay at home emergency may be power outage, blizzard, tornado, severe storms and flooding.

This plan will help you when you need to stay home during an emergency without outside help for an extended period of time.

We will discuss the 6 things you need to have at home to be ready for this type of emergency.

• Food storage
• Water storage
• Heat
• Light
• Communication
• Security

We will also discuss alternative electricity sources and how to use them in the most efficient way possible.

Staying home has its own problems, so be prepared if you have to hunker down for a few days or weeks until the emergency has passed.

As we discuss these 3 home emergency plans this month, I hope it allows you to feel more safe and prepared in case of emergency.

Your preparedness and calm manner can help others in and out of your family in a time of crisis. After all, the more we are prepared the more we can help others too.

So stay tuned the rest of the month as we explore these 3 home emergency plans in much more detail, including printables to help us complete the task.

Here are the links to the other posts in this series for further reading:

Create Your Family Emergency Evacuation Plan with Free Printables

Create A Fire Emergency Plan to Prepare Your Family with Free Printables

Create A Stay At Home Emergency Plan for Your Family with Free Printables

Do you have any emergency plans prepared for your family? Let us know in the comments below. And if you found this post helpful, please share. Thanks!

Prepare for Emergencies WITHOUT Building a Bunker in the Woods

Want to prepare for emergencies, but aren't sure you have enough time or space to store a bunch of stuff? Keep it simple by getting our checklist so you only store the essentials. This FREE PDF will show you what you need to keep your family safe and prepared in any scenario.

When you sign up for our email list, you will get this PDF for free, along with weekly emails covering topics on gardening, homesteading, etc. Don't worry. We won't spam your inbox. You can unsubscribe any time.

I'm so ready!