While no one wants to think of the possibility that their home will catch fire and become a danger to their family, this is a reality that too many people have had to deal with. So if and when this happens to you, you’ll be glad that you took the time to prepare yourself and your family for how to handle this scary and sometimes deadly situation. To help you know where to start in your preparations, here are three ways you begin preparing your family for a potential house fire.

Maintain Your Smoke Alarms

Before creating a plan of action for what to do if a fire happens in your home, you first have to be able to be alerted if smoke is detected. As you’ve likely heard before: where there’s smoke, there’s fire. So to ensure that your family is made aware of the presence of smoke and fire, it’s important that you maintain your smoke alarms.

To do this, Ready.gov recommends that you have dual sensor smoke alarms that you check monthly to ensure they’re still working. You should also have smoke alarms both inside and outside each room of your home. This includes areas like the garage and basement as well. Having quality, working smoke alarms will ensure that you’re able to have the most time possible to handle any type of fire situation that may occur at your home.

Stay Calm By Knowing What To Do

Once you’re made aware that there’s a fire in your home, it’s important that you know what to do and how to handle yourself so you don’t make any questionable decisions in this dangerous situation. According to KidsHealth.org, you should stay low and make sure you touch an doors or door handles before you open them to ensure that room’s safe to enter. Also, if you have kids at home, it’s vital that you teach them how to act quickly and not hide under their bed or in a closet when they hear smoke alarms.

Solidify Escape Plans

To give your family the best chance of survival from a house fire, you should create escape plans that you do trial runs of on a regular basis. The American Red Cross shares that every person in your home should know of at least two ways to exit every room and know where to meet outside the home in case of an emergency. By running drills together, you can increase the chances of everyone staying calm if a real emergency should present itself.

To keep your family as safe as possible, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you and your family prepare for a house fire.