Teaching Your Family Egress Procedures

Teaching your family, especially children, about the use of egress windows or doors is part of having an escape plan from your home established in the event of an emergency. In homes, the most common types of egress are windows. They are easier and less expensive to install than doors. Every room used for sleeping in a home is required to possess at least one egress window. There are very specific requirements for egress windows in terms of positioning, dimensions and operation. Knowing what to do in the event of an emergency can save lives. Since egress windows are meant for precisely such a scenario, it is imperative that kids know what to do.

Step 1: Ensure Your Home Meets Egress Code

Before you can teach your kids proper egress procedures, you have to be sure the egress windows in your homes are up to code. If you installed them yourself or had them installed, they were likely built according to required specifications. Regardless, check them for safety. In basement egress windows, make sure you and/or your children can safely climb out of the egress well once outside. If not, install a ladder to aid in climbing. Check all of the windows to ensure that they will open without undue force or strength and that anyone can unlatch and open them from the inside.

Step 2: Devise an Escape Route for Upper Level Egress Windows

Egress windows leading out of upper level rooms likely take the occupant to a roof. Be sure you have an escape plan in mind to get your children and other family members down safely to the ground. Buy a rope ladder and find a place to attach it to the home's structure.

Step 3: Make a Whole-House Diagram

Draw a diagram of every floor of your house with each subdivided by room. Resembling a top-down blueprint, use this diagram to create safe escape routes from each room, indicating with a red marker the best, safest way outside from each location. For bedrooms that have egress windows leading to a roof, be sure to mark the location of the emergency exit ladder or where it should be placed. Every bedroom with an egress window needs its own emergency escape route diagrammed. This diagram should be laminated and positioned somewhere very visible in the house. Make photocopies of it and place one in each room.

Step 4: Instruct Your Kids

With the emergency escape diagram in place, spend a little time with your kids showing them not only the diagram but how to properly use their egress window. They should know exactly how to open the window in their room, quickly remove a screen if there is one and be able to clear the window quickly. In basement rooms, show them how to get out of the egress well once they've moved out from the window. On upper levels, walk them through the emergency drill including how to properly attach and unroll the rope ladder.

Your kids need not be tested every week like a regular school fire drill, but you should be confident that they know how to quickly clear the egress window in their room and to safely use any supplemental escape device.

Following these procedures could save a life!

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