Know how you’ll get out before a fire happens.
A home fire can spread quickly. Everyone in your household should know how to leave safely and where to meet once they are outside.
Your escape plan should include more than one way out, working smoke alarms and a safe meeting place outside your home.
Build Your Home Escape Plan
Walk through your home together and make sure every member of your household understands the plan.
Find Two Ways Out
Visit every room and identify two possible ways out whenever possible.
Draw Your Plan
Draw a map of your home showing doors, windows and the escape routes from each room.
Choose a Meeting Place
Pick one permanent meeting location outside and a safe distance from your home.
Check Your Smoke Alarms
Make sure working smoke alarms are installed throughout your home and test them every month.
Check Doors & Windows
Make sure doors and windows used in your escape plan can be opened quickly and easily.
Make Your Address Visible
Ensure your home’s address can be clearly seen from the street so emergency crews can find you quickly.
Everyone needs to know what to do.
Teach children how to escape on their own in case an adult cannot reach them.
Include the needs of older adults and people with disabilities when developing your plan. Specialized smoke alarms with strobe lights or bed shakers may assist people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
A plan only works if you’ve practiced it.
Practice your home escape plan with everyone in your household during both daytime and nighttime conditions.
Repeat your drills throughout the year and think about escape routes whenever you’re staying somewhere other than home.
Create Your Own Home Escape Plan
Download Richmond Fire-Rescue’s printable activity and map the primary and secondary escape routes from your home.
Escape Planning Videos
Watch these Richmond Fire-Rescue videos for more information about planning and responding safely.
Home Escape Plans
Build and practice an escape plan for your home.
Shelter in Place
What to do when safely leaving is not possible.
Hotel Escape Planning
Think about your escape route whenever you’re away from home.
Smoke alarms can save your life.
Smoke can spread quickly during a fire. Working smoke alarms provide an early warning so you and your family have more time to get safely outside.
Installing alarms in the right locations is only part of the job. Smoke alarms also need to be tested, maintained and replaced when required.
Keep Your Smoke Alarms Ready
A smoke alarm can only protect you when it is installed, maintained and working properly.
Test Every Month
Press the test button on every smoke alarm in your home at least once each month.
Never Disable an Alarm
Never remove the battery or disconnect a smoke alarm. Use the silence feature when appropriate instead.
Check the Alarm’s Age
Smoke alarms do not last forever. Check the manufacture date and replace the alarm according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
React When It Sounds
Treat a sounding smoke alarm seriously. Get outside, stay outside and call 9-1-1 from a safe location.
Put smoke alarms where they can protect you.
Smoke alarms should be installed throughout your home so everyone can receive an early warning — particularly while sleeping.
Install Them High
Install smoke alarms on the ceiling or high on a wall and follow the manufacturer’s installation instructions.
Interconnect Alarms
Interconnected alarms provide additional warning because when one alarm sounds, the connected alarms sound as well.
Avoid Nuisance Alarms
Follow the manufacturer’s guidance when locating alarms near kitchens and other areas that may produce smoke or steam.
Smoke alarms are available for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Specialized alerting equipment can include flashing strobe lights and bed or pillow-shaking devices. Choose equipment that meets the needs of the people living in your home.
Get out. Stay out. Call 9-1-1.
Follow your home escape plan and go directly to your designated outside meeting place. Do not re-enter the building. Tell arriving firefighters if someone may still be inside.
Smoke Alarm Safety Videos
Watch these Richmond Fire-Rescue videos for more information about smoke alarm placement, maintenance and why working alarms matter.
Smoke Alarms in Bedrooms
Why smoke alarms belong inside sleeping rooms.
Do Smoke Alarms Expire?
Learn why the age of your smoke alarm matters.
Where Should Smoke Alarms Be Installed?
Learn where alarms should be located throughout your home.
Why Working Smoke Alarms Matter
Understand the importance of early warning during a fire.
Carbon monoxide can be dangerous before you know it’s there.
Carbon monoxide — often shortened to CO — is a colourless, odourless gas produced when fuels such as natural gas, propane, gasoline, oil, wood or charcoal do not burn completely.
Fuel-burning heating equipment, cooking appliances, fireplaces, vehicles and other combustion equipment can produce carbon monoxide.
Where Can Carbon Monoxide Come From?
Any equipment that burns fuel has the potential to produce carbon monoxide if it is improperly used, vented or maintained.
Heating Equipment
Furnaces, fireplaces, boilers and other fuel-burning heating equipment can produce CO.
Cooking Equipment
Gas and other fuel-burning cooking appliances can produce carbon monoxide.
Vehicles & Engines
Vehicle exhaust and other fuel-powered engines can quickly create dangerous CO levels in enclosed spaces.
Grills & Generators
Charcoal grills and fuel-powered generators must never be operated inside a home, garage or other enclosed space.
Install carbon monoxide alarms where they can protect you.
Properly located alarms provide an early warning if carbon monoxide begins accumulating inside your home.
Help Prevent Carbon Monoxide Buildup
Proper maintenance and safe use of fuel-burning equipment can reduce the risk of carbon monoxide entering your home.
Test CO alarms every month
Use the test button and replace alarms according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Maintain fuel-burning equipment
Have furnaces and other fuel-burning equipment inspected and maintained by a qualified professional.
Keep grills outdoors
Never use charcoal or fuel-burning grills inside your home, garage or another enclosed space.
Never idle vehicles in a garage
Do not run a vehicle or other fuel-powered engine inside a garage, even when the garage door is open.
Keep exhaust outlets clear
Keep exterior vents and exhaust outlets for fuel-burning equipment clear of snow, ice and other obstructions.
Use generators outdoors
Operate fuel-powered generators outdoors and well away from doors, windows and other building openings.
Know the possible signs of carbon monoxide exposure.
Carbon monoxide exposure can cause symptoms such as headache, tiredness and shortness of breath. More serious exposure can result in loss of consciousness and can be fatal. If you suspect carbon monoxide exposure, get to fresh air immediately.
Leave immediately and move to fresh air.
Do not ignore a carbon monoxide alarm and do not stay inside trying to locate the source.
Leave the home immediately and move everyone to fresh air outside.
Call 9-1-1 from outside or another safe fresh-air location.
Do not re-enter the home until emergency personnel tell you it is safe to do so.
Fire safety looks a little different depending on where you live.
A detached home, townhouse, apartment and high-rise building each have different features that can affect how you respond during a fire.
Learn the exits, alarms and fire-safety systems in your building before an emergency happens. Everyone in your household should understand the plan.
Plan for the Home You Live In
The basics are the same — working alarms, clear exits and a practiced plan — but some details depend on the building.
If You Live in a House
- Install and maintain working smoke alarms in the required locations throughout your home.
- Identify two ways out of rooms whenever possible.
- Make sure windows and doors used for escape open easily and are not blocked.
- Choose one permanent outside meeting place for everyone in the household.
- Practice your home escape plan with everyone who lives in the home.
- If your home has a residential sprinkler system, make sure it is properly maintained.
If You Live in a Multi-Unit Building
- Learn your building’s fire-safety and emergency procedures.
- Know the location of all available exit stairs from your floor.
- Keep hallways, exit doors and stairways clear and unobstructed.
- Know whether your building is protected by sprinklers and other fire-safety systems.
- Choose a safe outdoor meeting place for members of your household.
- Never assume the elevator is part of your normal fire escape route.
Speak with your building manager, landlord or strata council so you understand the building’s fire-safety plan, alarm procedures and evacuation routes. Different buildings can have different emergency procedures, so knowing your own building matters.
Get out safely. Stay out. Call 9-1-1.
If fire or smoke threatens your home and you can safely leave, follow your escape plan and move to your designated meeting place.
Follow your escape route and close doors behind you when possible to help slow the spread of fire and smoke.
During an evacuation from a multi-storey building, use the exit stairs rather than elevators unless emergency personnel or your building’s emergency system directs otherwise.
If you must move through smoke, stay as low as possible while making your way to safety.
Once you are safely outside, do not go back inside for belongings, pets or other people.
Call from a safe location and tell the dispatcher what happened and whether anyone may still be inside.
Move away from the fire, close doors between you and the fire, call 9-1-1 and tell the dispatcher your exact location. Follow their instructions.
