2Steps2Minutes for Fire Safety

The Red Cross' campaign 2Steps2Minutes encourages fire safety by making sure you and your family have a plan in advance to safely escape your home in 2 minutes or less in case of a fire. The goal of 2Steps2Minutes is to reduce death and injuries from home fires which claim an average of 7 lives every day. Here's how to help keep your family safe.


Make sure your family can safely escape a home fire in under 2 minutes. Use this worksheet to plan and prepare your 2-minute drill today.

In addition to the worksheet, here are additional tips for fire escape planning:

• Ensure that all household members know two ways to escape from every room of your home.
• Make sure everyone knows where to meet outside in case of fire.
• Practice escaping from your home at least twice a year and at different times of the day. Practice waking up to smoke alarms, low crawling and meeting outside. Make sure everyone knows how to call 911.
• Teach household members to STOP, DROP and ROLL if their clothes should catch on fire.

Test your smoke alarms monthly. Make sure you and your family are alerted as soon as a fire is detected. If a smoke alarm isn't working, change the batteries.

Teach your kids fire safety in a fun way with the American Red Cross free app Monster Guard. This app is geared towards children between the ages of 7 and 11 and teaches ways to stay safe in home fires, as well as in other emergencies - hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and other disasters. To download the app, go to redcross.org/monsterguard or text 'MONSTER' to 90999 for a direct link to download.

Find more fire safety tips online on the American Red Cross website.