Safety and Fire Prevention - Apartment and Tall Building Safety

The following information is a general guide for apartments and tall buildings. Since each building is unique, you should learn the approved "Fire Safety Plan" specifically designed for your building.

What actions must I take in a fire?

During a fire emergency, never attempt to leave a building by an elevator. Heat can activate elevator call buttons, sending the elevator to the fire floor, where dense smoke may interfere with the elevator's light-sensitive eye and prevent the door from closing. Also, you may become trapped in the elevator if water from firefighting operations creates a power failure. In addition, fire fighters require designated elevators to carry them and their equipment to the floor below the fire.

In reacting to a fire in an apartment or high building, you must decide on two options:

• Do I leave the building to safety? or
• Is it safer to stay where I am?

What steps do I take when fire is in my apartment or office?

• Alert everyone in your apartment or office.
• Leave immediately. Close, but don't lock, all doors behind you.
• Sound the fire alarm by activating a red manual pull station on the fire floor (when safe to do so).
• Call 9-1-1 from a safe location. Never assume that someone else has already done so. Make sure you give your name, the correct address and location of the fire.
• Use the exit stairwells. Don't use elevators.
• Use your fire escape plan. Go to the designated meeting place.
• Don't return until firefighters declared the apartment or office safe.

What steps do I take when I hear a fire alarm?

If you choose to leave the building:

• Leave as soon as possible
• Before opening any door, feel the door handle and the door itself, starting from the bottom, moving to the top. If the door is not hot, open it slightly.
• If you see or smell smoke, or feel or hear air pressure or a hot draft, close the door quickly.
• If the corridor is free of fire or smoke, take your keys, close the door behind you, and leave the building by the nearest exit stairwell, again closing all doors after you.
• If you encounter smoke in a stairwell, consider taking an alternate stairwell. Be sure to crawl low under smoke. If the alternate is also contaminated with smoke, return to your suite.
• When you are safely outside call 9-1-1. Never assume that someone else has already done so. Make sure you give your name, the correct address and location of the fire.

If you cannot leave your apartment/office or have returned to it because of fire or heavy smoke:

• Close, but don't lock any doors for possible entry by firefighters.
• Seal all cracks where smoke can enter by using wet towels or sheets. Seal mail slots, transoms and ventilation outlets as necessary (a roll of wide duct tape is handy).
• Move to the balcony or to the most protected room and partially open a window for air. Close the window if smoke enters.
• Keep low to the floor. Heat and toxic gases rise.
• Signal firefighters by waving a white sheet or towel.
• Wait to be rescued. Remain calm. Don't panic or jump.
• Listen for instructions or information from authorized personnel over the building's internal speaker system.

Also remember - Don't park in front of fire hydrants or in fire routes. When friends and/or relatives visit, be sure to remind them to park in the appropriate areas.

In case of fire or an emergency, call 9-1-1.