Shelter · Household Situations
Two exits from every bedroom. One meeting point outside. One contact outside the region. A plan practiced at least twice. That is the whole thing. The households that do this spend less time frightened and more time knowing what to do.
Build the planWhy this matters
The NFPA reports that in a home fire, occupants have as little as two minutes to escape after a smoke alarm sounds.[1] Two minutes is not enough time to decide where to go. It is enough time to go where you already decided.
A household safety plan is not a document. It is a set of decisions your household has made before anything happens, practiced often enough that those decisions become automatic. The plan has four elements: how to get out, where to meet, who to call, and who does what.
Most households skip this because it feels like planning for something unlikely. It is actually planning for your household to function clearly during something stressful. The same plan that handles a house fire also handles an earthquake evacuation, a gas leak, and any other situation where you need to get everyone out quickly and know where everyone is.
The plan
A complete household safety plan takes about 45 minutes to build. The NFPA recommends practicing it twice a year.[1]
01
Sketch a simple floor plan of your home. Mark two ways out of every room where someone sleeps. The first exit is the door. The second is almost always a window. For windows above the ground floor, decide whether a portable escape ladder is warranted and where it would be stored. Mark the routes on the plan.
The sketch does not need to be accurate. It needs to show the path. A rough drawing is fine. Do this for every sleeping room, including rooms used by guests who visit regularly.
02
The first is outside the home: a specific spot everyone can reach from any exit. A large tree, a neighbor's driveway, the mailbox. Be specific: not "the front yard" but "the oak tree by the front walkway." The second is away from the neighborhood, for situations where the block itself is unsafe or access is blocked. A nearby community center, school, or church works well.
Both points should be known to every person in the household, including children old enough to walk there independently.
03
Local phone lines and cell networks can be overwhelmed after a significant event. An out-of-area contact, someone who lives in a different city or region, often has better connectivity than local lines. Every household member should know this person's name and phone number from memory, or have it written in a wallet card.
This person is not an emergency responder. Their job is to be a central message relay: "I am okay, I am at the second meeting point" or "I cannot reach Mom." FEMA and the Red Cross both recommend this approach.[2]
04
When multiple adults are in the household, assign clear responsibilities so two people do not do the same thing while something else gets missed. Who goes to the children's rooms? Who takes the dog? Who grabs the go-bag? Who is responsible for making sure the front door is closed behind everyone? These decisions are made now, not during an alarm.
A single adult household skips this step but adds the next question: who is the first person to call if something goes wrong and you cannot self-rescue?
05
Walk every escape route with every person in the household. Do this at least twice a year. For households with children, the NFPA recommends doing a nighttime practice drill, since most fatal home fires occur at night when people are asleep.[1]
Practicing does not require an alarm or high drama. Walk the route, confirm the meeting point, and reset. The whole thing takes ten minutes. The value is not the drill itself but the fact that everyone has done the route at least once with their own feet.
Households with children
Children who know what to do during an emergency alarm are less frightened when one goes off, not more. Competence reduces fear. The framing matters: this is a skill, not a scenario to be afraid of.
Young children are not expected to act independently in an emergency. What they need to know: when the alarm sounds, find a grown-up. Stay low. Hold hands and follow. Practice what the alarm sounds like so it is not startling when they first hear it outside of a drill.
Children in this range can learn and remember their escape route. Show them the two ways out of their bedroom. Walk them to the meeting point. Tell them who to find outside. Teach them that they should leave even if no adult is immediately visible, and that the meeting point is where everyone will be.
Older children can take on genuine responsibility. They can know the out-of-area contact's number, help a younger sibling exit, and take ownership of a specific role. Including them in the planning process, not just the drill, builds the kind of competence that actually helps in a real situation.
The closed-bedroom-door habit. NFPA research shows that a closed bedroom door significantly slows the spread of fire and smoke, providing additional time to escape and higher survival rates.[1] Teaching children to sleep with their bedroom door closed is one of the highest-return habits a family can build.
Common gaps
01
Most escape plan practices happen in daylight. Most fatal home fires happen at night. Walking the route once in low light or with eyes adjusted from sleep is a completely different experience from the daytime version. Do the nighttime practice at least once.
02
Before opening a door during a fire, feel it with the back of your hand. A hot door means fire is on the other side. Most households have heard this rule. Very few have practiced it as a physical action. Practice the feel-before-open motion during the drill so it is not something to remember in the moment.
03
Most households name one emergency contact and stop. What if that person is unreachable? Name a second out-of-area contact. They do not need to be family. A trusted friend in a different city who answers the phone reliably is a better choice than a relative who frequently misses calls.
Continue
Related situations
Guides for seniors at home, children, people living alone, and pets. Back to the full category.
All situationsThe fire side
Smoke alarms, extinguishers, escape routes, and the checklist. The fire safety guide that pairs directly with this planning page.
Fire preparedness