How to Make a Home Fire Escape Plan: 8 Steps for Indian Families

Most people think a fire is something that happens in a factory or a market. The numbers say otherwise. In 2024, NCRB recorded 5,888 deaths in fire accidents across India, and 3,555 of them, six out of every ten, were in homes. When a fire starts at night, the smoke fills a flat in minutes, the lights may go out, and people who have never thought about how to get out lose precious time.

A home fire escape plan takes about half an hour to make. It means that on the worst night of your life, nobody in your family has to think. They already know what to do.

Why a plan helps

• You get out faster. A family that has practised can be out in a fraction of the time it takes to work out a route in the dark.
• Less panic. Children and elderly people cope far better when they have done it before.
• Nobody is forgotten. The plan says who helps the baby, who helps Dadi, and where everyone meets, so you know at once if someone is missing.

Step 1: Sit down together

Get everyone in the house together, including the domestic help or anyone else who stays over. Explain why you are doing this, without frightening the children.

Step 2: Draw your home

On a sheet of paper, draw a rough plan of your flat or house. Mark every room, door and window, the main door, the balcony, the staircase and, in a building, both exit stairs. Mark where your smoke alarms, extinguisher and LPG cylinder are. Mark the main route in one colour and the second route in another, and stick the sheet up at a child’s eye level in the passage or near the main door.

Step 3: Find two ways out of every room

For each room, mark the normal way out and a second way, in case the first is full of smoke or fire. The second way might be another door, or a balcony or window where you can wait safely and be seen. Check that doors and grilles actually open. Many Indian homes have locked window grilles and a main door with three locks. Keep the keys in one fixed place, near the door, that everyone knows and can reach in the dark. Grilles and safety doors need a part that opens quickly from inside, so never padlock a balcony grille or the safety door from outside. Keep the passage to the main door free of shoe racks, cycles and cartons.

Step 4: Choose a meeting point outside

Pick one spot outside, at a safe distance, such as the society gate, a particular tree or the security cabin. Keep it away from overhead wires and parked vehicles, and out of the way of fire engines. Everyone goes straight there and stays there. That is how you find out quickly whether anyone is still inside. Tell the fire brigade at once if someone is missing. Never go back in.

Step 5: Give people jobs

Decide who wakes whom, who helps small children, who helps elderly parents or anyone who uses a wheelchair or cannot see or hear well, and who calls for help. Plan routes that suit their needs. If someone cannot manage the stairs, tell your society security and neighbours in advance.

Step 6: Write down the numbers

Put the plan on the fridge or near the main door with these numbers: 101 for the fire brigade, 112 for any emergency, 108 for an ambulance, 1906 for an LPG leak, your society security desk, and a relative who lives elsewhere. Write your full address, with the building, wing and floor, so whoever calls can read it out.

Step 7: Practise

• Hold a drill. Press the smoke alarm test button and have everyone leave by their normal route and meet outside. Time it.
• Practise the second route as well, pretending the first one is blocked.
• Practise at night once, with the lights off, so everyone learns to find the way in the dark.
• Practise staying low. Smoke rises, so the cleanest air is near the floor. Crawl if there is smoke.
• Practise feeling doors. Before opening a door, touch it with the back of your hand. If it is hot, use your other way out.
• In a building, use the stairs, never the lift.

Step 8: Keep it up to date

Change the plan when the household changes: a new baby, an elderly parent moving in, a renovation, new grilles. Practise again after any change.

Home fire escape plan template: copy it and fill it in

Copy the lines below onto paper or into a note on your phone and fill in each blank with your family. Stick the sheet inside the main door or on the fridge, next to the floor plan from Step 2.

• Our address (building, wing, floor, flat, landmark): ______________
• Main way out: ______________ Second way out: ______________
• Each bedroom, the hall and the kitchen: first way out ______________, second way out ______________
• Keys for the main door and grilles are kept at: ______________
• Meeting point outside: ______________
• Who wakes whom: ______________ Who helps the children: ______________ Who helps the elders: ______________ Back-ups: ______________
• Who calls 101 or 112 from outside and gives the address, floor and who is missing: ______________
• Numbers: 101 fire, 112 emergency, 108 ambulance, 1906 LPG leak, society security ______________, a relative in another city ______________
• Where things are: smoke alarm ______________, extinguisher ______________, fire blanket ______________
• Last drill: ______________ Next drill: ______________

Fire brigade numbers differ by city. See our City Safety Guides for Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad or the hub for other towns. Wherever you live, call 101 or 112 first.

Children and older family members

Give every child and elder a named helper and a back-up. The US National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) says they may need help to wake up and get out.

• Children. Tell them that when the alarm rings they go straight to the meeting point. They do not hide under the bed and do not go back for a toy or a pet. A child old enough should be able to open the bolts and grille release alone. Try daylight drills before a night one; the aim is practice, not fright.
• Older family members. Keep the stick, walker or wheelchair and a phone within reach of the bed, and practise the walk to the main door. Someone who is hard of hearing may sleep through an ordinary alarm, so decide who wakes them. See our guide on evacuation for people with disabilities.

How often to practise

Practise at least twice a year, once by day and once at night, with everyone in the house, guests and domestic help included. That is the NFPA’s advice. Pick two dates you will remember, such as the weekend before Diwali and the start of summer, and time the drill. Redo the plan after any change at home. This quick review tests whether everyone can explain the plan, and our post on fire drills and evacuation data adds context.

The team behind HowToSurvive.in also builds Bharat101, an independent safety app (not a government service). If something happens when part of the family is out of the house, its hold-to-send SOS can share your live location with your emergency contacts, and private family circles let relatives choose to share their location with each other. It is available on Google Play. In an emergency, always call 112 or 101 first.

Get ready for night

• Keep a torch and your phone by the bed, so you are not looking for them in the dark.
• Sleep with bedroom doors closed if you can. In fire tests, a closed door kept smoke, heat and carbon monoxide out of the room far longer than an open one.
• Fit smoke alarms in the passage outside the bedrooms. In the kitchen, a heat alarm works better, because cooking fumes set off a smoke alarm.
• Decide in advance who carries the baby and who helps Dadi or Nana down the stairs at night.

In a society or apartment building

• Ask your society to hold a fire and evacuation drill, and take part when it does.
• Staircases and exit doors must never be locked or used for storage.
• Check that the emergency lights and exit signs work.
• Put up 101, 108 and 112 and the building address in the lobby and inside the lifts.
• Ask the society office for the building’s evacuation plan and assembly point, and use that spot as your meeting point.

Living on a higher floor

• Walk both staircases to the ground once, in daylight, and check the doors open and the landings are clear.
• Keep staircase fire doors closed; a door wedged open lets smoke in.
• Take the stairs, not the lift, unless firefighters say otherwise. The NFPA gives the same advice.

More in our posts on high-rise fire safety and emergency evacuation plans.

If you are trapped

If both ways out are blocked, go into a room, shut the door and put wet cloth along the gaps. Call 101 or 112 and give your exact flat number and floor. Go to the window or balcony and wave a bright cloth or a phone torch so firefighters can see you.

This Sunday, after lunch, draw the plan with your family. It takes less time than one episode of a TV serial.