As part of National Fire Prevention week, the Palm Beach County Fire Rescue is demonstrating ways you can escape if a fire sparks inside your home.
Firefighters ran through re-enactments with children escaping a smoke-filled room by applying life-saving tips.
These include:
- Thinking ahead by purchasing an portable escape ladder
- Indicating where you are with visual cues such as a sheet pinned under your window
- Covering vents and cracks to keep smoke out.
- Staying low since smoke rises to the ceiling
- Closing the door when you exit to help prevent the fire from spreading further
Fire safety specialist Tara Cardoso urges parents to start working on these techniques with their children.
"Children are going to panic, everyone panics in an emergency," Cardoso explains, "but they're going to feel better having known from you ahead of time as the parent what little things they can do and what's the safest way to get out of a house."
Cardoso added it's important to plan at least two ways out because every second counts.