Fire!

In your local emergency dispatch room there are many binders housing the hard copies of emergency plans.  Plans that cover a myriad of situations.  A plan for a dam failure.  A plan for a large scale chemical spill.  Plans for school evacuations and so on.  Emergencies by nature are chaotic, but can you imagine how even a group of  well trained professionals would handle one without a plan in place?  Not very well.
Does your family have a plan?  There are many topics I'd like to cover, but lets start with a fire safety/fire evacuation plan;

• Begin with working smoke detectors.  I emphasize working. Don't be like me and disable the thing once it starts it's beeping.  Is there anything more frustrating than trying to detect which detector is beeping?  I run from room to room with my head cocked and my nose pointed to the ceiling trying to determine where that horrible noise is coming from.  Be proactive and change them before they warn you.
• Create an evacuation plan.  
• Identify at least two escape routes per room.
• Practice your plan.  Children will better understand their role if the evacuation is acted out.   Age appropriate of course.  There are no Oscars for best performance in a dramatic fire evacuation demonstration - lets not scare the little ones with screams of agony and panicked instructions to Stop, Drop and Roll.
• Select a location that everyone meet after escaping the home.  I don't mean Red Robin - how about a trustworthy neighbors home?

The Red Cross has more and probably far better tips - please visit their site or contact your local friendly fire department for more information regarding fire emergency.