Children are very vulnerable in every situation, especially during emergencies. In the year 2017 alone, fire departments responded to different fire emergencies every 24 seconds. This provides us a serious look of how children’s safety should be even more on top of our concerns during fire incidents.
Whether you’re a parent, teacher, or adult, you recognize that rescuing children from harm doesn’t need to be instructed. However, when we’re in an actual disaster emergency, such as fire, we may not know what to do. This is the kind of experience that we intend to prevent in our Disaster and Risk Management Trainings. We believe that every person is a life-saver when they know what they needed to do.
Hence, we would like to share the following tips on how you can protect a child from fire emergencies:
- Education
Always remind your children about the danger of starting flames and they should not use fire for playing. Unless they’re supervised by an adult, children need to know that it’s very risky for them and the place they’re in, when they play with flames mindlessly. - Fire Alarms
As Emergency Preparedness Consultant in Washington, DC, we also believe that prevention is a very powerful factor in keeping children safe from falls. This is the importance of installing fire alarms in our establishments so that they will be made aware when a fire incident is happening. - Fire Exit
Train your child to look for the fire exit wherever they are. At home, in school, or in the mall, it’s very important to practice your child to identify the safe places to go whenever fire incidents take place. - Stay Outside
Children also need to know that when fires occur, they have to go outside to an open space. In addition, once they’re outside, they also have to stay there and let the fire personnel go inside to douse the flames. When possible in your location, agree for a particular place that you will have to safely meet together if ever a disaster happens. - Stop, Drop, and Roll
It can be easy to panic when one’s clothes get caught by the fire. For this, you have to let your children know that they only need to stop, then drop to the ground, and roll around if ever they discover that their clothes are on fire. This can douse the fire immediately. - Fire Escape Plan
In your family, you can also create a fire escape plan, which you can practice at least twice a year. This will serve to refresh your child’s memory and train their presence of mind so that they will respond to fire incidents proactively.
As your trusted Emergency Training Consultants in Washington, DC, we believe that maintaining a child’s safety during fire incidents is very possible when the adults in their lives are also aware of the life-saving practices. At Strategic Educational Consulting, LLC, feel free to ask us how we can help equip you on fire safety.