The 5-Minute Prepper #1: How to Prepare for a House Fire

Did you know that once a fire has grown bigger than the average trash can, you’re unlikely to be able to stop it from spreading? If you’re unfamiliar with how fast a fire can spread, check out the video below. (It’s shocking!)

As you can see, if your home catches fire, you won’t have time to grab anything except what you have prepared to grab, like your Home Escape Bag.

Large, destructive disasters that make headlines are typically among the reasons we decide to become better prepared, yet we’re more likely to deal with many “everyday emergencies.” These everyday emergencies are personal disasters—sometimes small, sometimes big, but they definitely upset our lives. Typically, they don’t affect anyone other than ourselves and possibly our immediate families.

You are far more likely to be in a car accident or have your home catch fire than you are to be in earthquakes, terror attacks, tornadoes, and other things we think of as a typical disaster.

Today’s 5-minute tip is all about how to prepare for a home fire.

Right now, make sure you have the following in your home and that these items are in working condition:

• Smoke detectors
• Carbon monoxide detectors
• Fire extinguishers
• Escape ladders

Go check your smoke carbon monoxide detectors right now—and if you don’t have them, go install some. Also check your fire extinguishers: are they still pressurized, and does everyone in the family know how to operate them?

Next, have a family meeting and make sure that everyone in the family knows how to escape. Set up a prearranged meeting place, like by the mailbox out on the street or at the neighbor’s gate. Finally, set up a drill to test your ability to get out and go to the correct place, and repeat this drill on a regular basis.

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Rob Hanus is the author of “The Preparedness Capability Checklist: A Planning and Evaluation Tool for Becoming More Self-Reliant,” an easy-to-read book that offers the absolute best method for intelligent and deliberate prepping. Rob is also host of the Preparedness Podcast.

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Marjory Wildcraft

Marjory Wildcraft is the founder of The Grow Network, which is a community of people focused on modern self-sufficient living. She has been featured by National Geographic as an expert in off-grid living, she hosted the Mother Earth News Online Homesteading Summit, and she is listed in Who’s Who in America for having inspired hundreds of thousands of backyard gardens. Marjory was the focus of an article that won Reuter’s Food Sustainability Media Award, and she recently authored The Grow System: The Essential Guide to Modern Self-Sufficient Living—From Growing Food to Making Medicine.