Most deaths from fire occur at night when people are asleep. Some people never wake up. Other people wake up and, lacking a plan for this emergency, panic and die. To give yourself advance warning of a fire, purchase smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and install as instructed. You should also have an escape plan (e.g., out the window and down the roof) for every bedroom in your home. Don’t forget to inform your overnight guests.
If you wake to the smell of smoke or the detector alarm, don’t jump up; you may get a lung full of smoke—enough to choke or even kill you. You should stay about a foot and a half off the floor (don’t get down at floor level; toxic gasses from plastics and the like travel down there), alert others, and get out!
Don’t rush out of your bedroom; you may be running into a wall of smoke or flame. Check the door. If there is smoke coming in under it, or if it is warm to the touch, use the window exits. If there is no smoke and the door is cool, stand behind the door and open it a crack. If no smoke or flame comes in, check the hallway, and go from there. Have everyone meet at the nearest neighbor’s house and call the fire department. Let the firefighters fight the fire; that’s their job. Don’t join the ranks of people who spent months in the hospital or, in some cases, died trying to fight a fire a fire that they didn’t know how to fight. Do not go back inside the house for any reason or anything. You’re out and alive, and that’s the bottom line.