How to Teach Children Fire Safety

Demonstrate how to escape. Tell your kids two ways to escape from their room and that to get out as soon as possible.

• Ensure that your kid can escape and check the windows can be opened. Place escape ladders and ropes near windows and balconies.

Enlighten them to feel for safety. When there is a fire, it will be dark and hard to navigate the house. You can blindfold your kid to simulate the situation.

Use songs. As annoying as songs are, changing the lyrics to your child's favorite nursery rhyme might be the thing that saves their life.

Instruct them about fire alarms. According to studies, some kids don't actually know what fire alarms do. Ensure your kids know that fire alarms alert you of fires, how to recognize the noise they make and to make sure that the batteries haven't gone flat.

Brief your kids not to go back into a burning building. They should get out as quickly as possible and go to the meeting point.

Ask children to touch doors to see if they are hot. Tell your kids not to open doors if they are hot because hot doors allow the fire to spread more.

• Children must know to never touch hot door handles and if they absolutely must, to use a towel or other piece of cloth. The cloth can also double up for face and respiratory protection.

Inform them about stop, drop and roll. Teach them to crawl on the floor escaping a fire and roll if they are on fire.

• Tell your kids to never run if they are on fire, this only makes it worse.

Practice and review fire safety each months, go over what they know on fire safety each month.

Organize a field trip. Call up your local fire brigade and ask to book an appointment. It this a great opportunity for them, especially since many children are scared of firefighters.

• Remember that firefighters could potentially get called to a fire and have to cancel your appointment.

Run a fire safety competition. Ask your kids to do a poster or essay about fire safety. Get them to cover how to escape and what to do in a fire.

Read them stories. There are many great fire safety books, many of which will be at your library. Here are some you should read:

• No Dragons for Tea: Fire Safety for Kids (And Dragons)
• Stop Drop and Roll (A Book About Fire Safety)
• Fire! Fire!
• Home Safety

Make red the color of the week. Many fire related things are red such as fires, fire extinguishers, fire hydrants and fire trucks. Get them to brainstorm and draw any other things that are red. You can even give them a red reward to keep the red theme going.

Show them how to follow fire exit signs. Walk them around the school and point out the fire exits. Tell them that fire exit signs are everywhere and will always remain illuminated.

Play some games. Get your kids to run around, crawl on the floor and cover their faces. A popular game kids like is stay low and go.

Practice escaping. Even if kids know how to evacuate their home, schools are very different. Dramatize a fire emergency at school, you can even add obstacles and block off exits to make it more challenging. Make sure the kids know the emergency assembly area.

Cover fire safety equipment. Teach your kids about fire blankets, fire alarms, fire hoses, fire alarms and fire extinguishers. You can even get them to find this fire equipment around the school and get them to check that they are working.

Teach your kids how to escape safely from fires.^[4] Get them to understand fires spread quickly and that most fire-related deaths come from smoke inhalation, not burns. Tell them dangerous fumes can overcome a person in just a few minutes. Practice crawling on the floor and escaping the house with them. If there are no passageways available they will have to use a secondary escape route such as a windows or ladder, and if there is still no escape route, wait at the window for firefighters. Drill into them the famous slogans:

• Don't hide, go outside
• Stop, drop and roll
• Fall and crawl
• Do not play with matches

Teach them to call Emergency Services. From an early age, drill into them the phone number to call in an emergency. Teach them your country's Emergency Services phone number and if they are old enough, that the international standard emergency number for mobile phones is 112.

Discuss with your children what to do during a fire.^[5] Remember not to be too serious which can frighten them, but serious enough to get your point across. Here are the main points kids should know:

• Smoke is very dangerous and that they should cover their mouth with a damp cloth.
• Smoke rises and they should crawl on the floor.
• Teach them the basic roles of fire extinguishers, smoke alarms, fire ladders, fire hoses and fire blankets.
• Touch the door, never the doorknob, to see if it is hot. Find another exit if it is hot.
• Know how to locate a Fire Exit sign and to never travel in an elevator.
• Enforce the serious danger of matches and how they can injure themselves.
• When evacuating never stop, not even to make a phone call to Emergency Services and never to go back inside.
• Stop, drop, and roll if your clothes catch on fire.

Practice until your kids know it by heart.^[6] Try using a stopwatch and giving them a time limit to get out. Make it a game and be creative with your teaching methods. Kids will be more likely to remember what to do in a fire if you do it with them. Children love Stop, Drop and Roll.