Practicing an escape route before you need it is the key to staying safe in a fire. In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of escape practice and why it’s so important for the safety of your loved ones.
If you’re a parent, there’s a good chance that the reason you got an egress window well was to help keep your children safe in the basement at night. If you're the one sleeping in your basement at night, all of the following applies to you as well.
So why is it so important to practice escaping your basement? Isn’t it easy and simple to exit through an egress window? Yes, while it is simple to escape through an egress window, even simple things need to be practiced before an emergency occurs.
Take for instance an emergency procedure when flying. One of the most dangerous situations for an airplane is a stall. A stall turns an airplane from a graceful bird in the skies into a tumbling piece of debris. If you're the passenger in an airplane, and your aircraft stalls, do you want a pilot who has practiced recovering from a stall or simply one that has read about how to do it in an instruction manual?
Obviously you want a pilot who has practiced recovering from a stall so many times that the correct actions are intuitive. In the same way, you want your family members to be so familiar with exiting through an egress window that it's second nature to them in the case of an emergency.
Let's look at a few more reasons why escape practice is so helpful in preparing for an emergency.
During any emergency situation our bodies flood with a surge of adrenaline. While it’s helpful for out-running a tiger in the jungle, it’s not helpful for processing and analyzing complex situations. This state of adrenaline does not create the ideal condition for learning how to unlock a window and slide it open. When you're in an emergency situation, you want to keep things as simple as possible. Escaping should not require any thinking, it should simply be an intuitive action that you take.
Another benefit of practice is that it helps you to remain more calm in the actual situation. When you are more calm, it allows you to maintain better control of your motor skills. Things like unlocking a window and climbing a ladder will be easier because you are less panicked, and therefore have better control of your hand movements.
Fires can create a unique set of escape challenges. Visibility during a fire could be extremely poor. If the fire has already destroyed the electricity in your home, there may not be any artificial light to help you navigate to the window and successfully exit. Smoke could hinder your visibility as well. For that reason, it's a great idea to have your children practice exiting the egress window from different points in your basement while wearing a blindfold. Just be sure to have a spotter with them to prevent any bumps or bruises during practice. While this exercise may seem a little extreme, it's a great way to prepare your children for the conditions of a fire.
The last reason why you should practice escaping through your egress window is to work out any kinks in the environment that could cause problems. For instance, if you have small children, do you need a step stool below the window in order to make it easy to escape? Is the area outside the window well clear? Shrubbery or lawn art around your egress window could make it difficult to exit the window and rapidly move away from your home. These are things that might be easy to overlook until you do some practice reps.
A little practice goes a long way towards helping your children be prepared to use your egress window effectively. Don't wait until it's too late. Make ‘escape practice’ a recurring task on your calendar. It’s a small investment of your time that could mean the difference between life and death for your child.
If you need an egress window well for your home, contact us today.