Fire Safety Plan

Do you have a fire safety plan at your house??

We had a scary thing happen a few weeks ago and it made me rethink our fire safety plan.  We were watching a movie at home on a Friday night and started to notice a smokey smell.  We live in a building with several other units so my husband got up and to check things out.  He opened the door and the hallway was filled with smoke!  He quickly shut the door and told me there was smoke everywhere.  We were all in our pjs and it was freezing outside.  I started grabbing shoes, heavy coats, my diaper bag, cell phone, car keys and tried to remember where I'd stored our cat carriers.  

Kevin decided to go back out and see if he could get a better handle on the situation while I was trying not to panic and gather everything we needed.  We weren't concerned about exiting the building because we live on the ground floor with several exit options from our apartment.  Kevin came back in and said that things were okay and we didn't need to exit.  He said our neighbor decided to use her fireplace but didn't realize she needed to open the vent.  She'd put out the fire and was just fanning out her place.  Praise the Lord!!

Things still smelled smokey but we knew we weren't in any danger.  I realized that if it had been a real fire, I wasn't prepared for it so we sat down immediately and talked through our fire safety plan.

Kevin will:

Get Olive, her car seat, his car keys and cell phone/wallet

I will:

get both cats in their carriers, my diaper bag with necessities 

(I always have it packed and ready to dash if needed) and my wallet/cell phone

Our meeting place is:

Our family car

Our plan assumes that we'll have a few minutes to gather our things.  If that's not the case, Kevin will get Olive and we will all get out ASAP.  I now have our cat carriers stored in our coat closet for easy access

and I keep my diaper bag right by the front entrance.

I realize that you can never fully prepare for something like this but I do feel more prepared now that my husband and I have put together a game plan for our family.  I know house fires are not that common but I know that it does happen and it did happen to two ladies whose blogs I read - TwoThirty Five Designs and Life In Grace

So what is your fire safety plan?!?!?!

I want to you be as prepared as possible!!