National Fire Prevention Week is October 7-13, 2012 and Ready Hampton Roads along with the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission want you to be prepared. This year’s theme is “Have 2 Ways Out!” As part of this awareness week, the nonprofit National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recommends that you take the following steps.

If you have children and want to make this a family activity:

• Make a map of your home. Mark a door and a window that can be used to get out of every room.
• Choose a meeting place outside in front of your home. This is where everyone can meet once they’ve escaped. Draw a picture of your outside meeting place on your escape plan.
• Write the emergency telephone number for the fire department on your escape plan.
• Sound the smoke alarm and practice your escape drill with everyone living in your home.
• Keep your escape plan on the refrigerator and practice the drill twice a year or whenever anyone in your home celebrates a birthday.

If your family is all adults:

• Walk through you home and identify two ways out of each room.
• Choose a meeting place outside in front of your home. This is where everyone can meet once they’ve escaped.
• Make sure everyone knows the emergency number for your local fire department.
• Practice your escape drill twice a year.

Lastly, according to the NFPA, one home structure fire was reported every 85 seconds in 2010. For more information about how you can get prepared please visit www.firepreventionweek.org