WHEN A fire occurs, there's no
time for planning. So, sit down
with your family today and make
a step-by-step plan for escaping a
fire.

Draw a diagram of your home.
Plan two ways out of every room,
especially bedrooms.

In an apartment, be sure you
can unlock all locks quickly, even
in the dark. Never use an elevator
during a fire; it may stop between
floors or even take you to the
floor where the fire is burning.

In a two-storey house, make
sure everyone can unlock all locks
and open all windows and doors
quickly. !f you must escape from
a second-storey window, be sure
you have a safe way to reach the
ground. Make special arrange-
ments for small children and peo-
ple with disabilities.

Get out fast. In case of a fire,
don’t wait for anything. Do not
try to take possessions or pets.
Just get out. Call the fire depart-
ment after you are out.

Choose a meeting place.
Everyone should gather at one
meeting place outside, preferably
at the front, where the fire
department will arrive. The fire
department must know if all fami-
ly members are accounted for, so
they don’t risk their lives sear-
ching for people unnecessarily.
Each family member should know
how to call the fire department
(911) from a neighbor’s home.

Don't go back no matter what.
Make sure everyone in your fami-
ly knows that once they are out,
they must not go back for any

Check
fire
extinguisher

NATIONAL FIRE Prevention
Week may be a good time to
become reacquainted with your
fire extinguisher — at home or at
your place of work.

Fire extinguishers do not take
the place of your local fire
department and its highly trained
personnel. But a fire extinguisher
can be a viable and_ effective
means of combatting small fires,
at work and at home.

To serve that purpose they need
to be in proper working order,
easily accessible and operated cor-
rectly. Be sure you know the loca-
tion of fire extinguishers — in
your home and at work. The ex-
tinguishers should be inspected
monthly and maintained by a
qualified technician.

If you need advice in this
regard, contact the fire prevention
officer of your local fire depart-
ment or the office of the Fire
Commissioner of British Colum-
bia, 333 Quebec St., Victoria,
B.C. V8V 1X4, phone 356-9000.

BIG
FIRES

START,
SMALL

KEEP MATCHES & LIGHTERS
IN THE RIGHT HANDS

Sunday, October 7, 1990 - North Shore News - 27

_ PREVENTION WEEK
7-13, 1990

Plan escape now

reason. if peor!: are trapped,
firefighters have the best chance
of rescuing them.

Practise your plan. At least
twice a year, have a fire drill in
your home. Appoint someone as
the monitor, to sound the alarm
and make sure everyone uses their
planned escape route. As part of
the Plan to Get Out Alive pro-
gram, all local radio and TY sta-
tions will sound a 30-second fire
alarm on Tuesday, Oct. 9 at 7
p.m., giving North Shore residents
a gocd opportunity to practise
their escape.

Remember, a fire drill is not a
race. Get out quickly but careful-
ly.

Start from bedrooms. The ma-
jority of fatal fires occur when
people are sleeping. So to start the
drill, go to your bedroom, close
the door and wait for the monitor
to sound the alarm.

Prepare. Make your exit drill as
realistic as possible. Practise both
escape routes. Pretend that certain
exits are blocked by fire, that
there are no lights, and that the
hallways are filling with smoke.

Test every door. Before opening

a door, feel it with the back of
your hand as high as you can
reach, at the crack on the hinge
side. If it is hot, use your second
way out.

If it is cool, brace your shoulder
against the door and open it
carefully. Be ready to slam it shut
if heat or smoke rushes in.

As you leave, close all doors
behind you to slow the spread of
fire and smoke.

Crawl low. Smoke contains
deadly gases and is hot, so it will
fill the room from the top down.
If your only way out is through

smoke, the best air will be several
inches off the floor. Get down on
your hands and knees and craw!
quickly to the exit.

If you are trapped... Close
doors between you and the fire.
Stuff the door cracks and cover
vents to keep smoke out. Wait at
a window and signal with a
flashlight, or by waving a sheet or
other light-colored cloth.

If there’s a phone in the room
call the fire department and tell
them where you are. °

Delay is deadly. If a fire starts,
smoke detectors give you early
warning. You need to know how
to get out without delay. Exit
drills make sure that your family
can get out quickly when there is
no time for mistakes.

You now have anew
emergency number.

' O41 is now

the one number to

call anywhere in

Greater Varicouver

for emergencies.
(Until now, the

941 number has only been available
in certain parts of Vancouver and
Richmond.) To see whether the area
you live in is in the new 944 service
area, just check the featured map

Call 9-11. Help willcome.

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» Delta

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> Lions Bay

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» North Vancouver City

in this ad. All the

areas

shown are now

served by 911.

Please call 9-14
only when you need
police, fire or ambu-

lance service. For non-emergency
situations, call the appropriate num-
ber for your community. You'll find it
listed on the inside cover page of your
Metro Vancouver telephone book.

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