Home escape plans for your family in case of fire should be reviewed during Fire Prevention Week

MASON CITY — Having a plan for your family to safely escape your home is one of the things you should be thinking about as part of Fire Prevention Week this week.

Keenan Feldpausch  of the Mason City Fire Department says escape plans are very important for homes with larger families.   “An escape plan gives you that safety net where if something does go wrong, you’re able to get out of the house in a safe manner, and having a meetup point outside the house is huge. That way a family, mom, dad, sister, brother, everyone is at the same spot, they know who is all out of the house, they can feel confident in telling us when we arrive that they don’t believe anyone is in the house. We’ll still go double-check, but it makes us feel better when they have accountability of all the people in the house.”

Feldpausch says they’ve encountered situations where families do not have a good fire plan.  “Some fires don’t happen as often, and so when they do happen, no one expects it to happen to them. It’s a stressful situation and it’s easy to veer off from what you think you’re going to do and what you’re actually going to do when the time comes.”