Free tool · Scarlet Beast En español →

Our way out: a home fire escape plan, with a drill timer

Ready.gov, the U.S. government’s emergency preparedness website, says a fire can become life-threatening in just two minutes, and that escape plans help you get out of your home quickly. This page is for a calm day before any fire. It writes down a meeting place outside and who helps whom, lists two ways out of every room, turns Ready.gov’s own lines about windows, smoke alarms and children into a checklist, times your drill, and puts it all on one sheet for the fridge door. There is no account and no price.

Private by design. Nothing you type is sent anywhere. What you write and tick is kept in this browser on this device from the first box you fill in or tick, and one button erases it. This page runs no analytics or tracking. How we handle privacy. That is not the same as secret: anyone who uses this browser on this device can read the plan, so on a shared or public computer print or download it and use Erase everything before you go.

If there is a fire or a smoke alarm is sounding right now, get out and call 911 from outside. This page is for before. For what to do during and after a fire, open When there’s a fire at home. If you are thinking about ending your life or hurting yourself, call or text 988 (in the U.S.) now, or open Get help now.

This tool needs JavaScript. You can do the same thing on paper: write your meeting place outside and who helps whom; under that, each room with two ways out of it; under that, the date of each drill and how long it took. Ready.gov’s own page is at ready.gov/home-fire-escape-plan.

Good to know

Where the lines come from

We added no advice of our own about fire. The three checklists in step 3, and the Ready.gov sentences quoted in the other steps, are Ready.gov’s words, from two of its pages: Practice Your Home Fire Escape Plan (marked last updated 03/25/2026) and Home Fires (marked last updated 02/26/2026). We read both on October 9, 2026. The idea of a map comes from the U.S. Fire Administration’s Home Fire Escape Plans page (marked last reviewed April 10, 2025), which says: “Draw a map of your home. Include all doors and windows.” The short examples under each box, and the third plan box, are ours.

The drill, in Ready.gov’s words

Step 1: Know where to go. Review your safe meeting place. Explain to your kids that when the smoke alarm beeps, they need to get out of the house quickly and meet at that safety spot.
Step 2: Check your smoke alarms. Test your smoke alarms with your kids so they know the sound.
Step 3: Do the drill. Have kids head to their bedrooms and wait for the drill to begin. Assign adults to help young children. Put one adult in charge of sounding the smoke alarm and running the drill.
Fires can start anywhere in the home and at any time, so run through the plan at different times of the day or night and practice different ways out.
Practice getting low and moving to your exits in case there is smoke.

Smoke alarms: two pages, two answers

Ready.gov’s escape plan page says to test smoke alarms twice a year, and that is the line on the checklist. The U.S. Fire Administration’s Smoke Alarms page (marked last reviewed Sept. 28, 2026, read October 9, 2026) says: “Test smoke alarms every month.” The two do not match, and we did not pick one for you; testing every month does both. Ready.gov’s Home Fires page adds that audible alarms are available for visually impaired people, that smoke alarms with a vibrating pad or flashing light are available for the hearing impaired, and one more line for every night: sleep with your bedroom door closed.

What this page can’t do

It makes no sound and is not a smoke alarm. The timer only counts.
It does not know your home. It cannot tell whether a way out you write down can really be used, such as a window on an upper floor. Ready.gov says a second way out can include an escape ladder for rooms on an upper level.
It does not know your building. For high-rise and condominium buildings, the U.S. Fire Administration says to know where all the exit stairs are, and: “Use the stairs to get out. Do not use the elevator unless directed by the fire department.”
It cannot remind you to hold a drill or test an alarm.
It is not an official form, not a Ready.gov or U.S. Fire Administration page, and nobody from a fire department has looked at it.
The plan does not move to another phone or computer by itself. Print it, download it, or use My data on this device to carry a backup across.

Tools that go with this

When there’s a fire at home: getting out, what to do if you can’t, a pan fire, and after the fire.
Before it happens: the household plan for storms, floods and power cuts, with a supply checklist.
When someone is burned and When it might be carbon monoxide.
My emergency card: a wallet card for each person, with who to call, allergies and medicines.
First aid: what do you see?
All the free tools, and how to save them on your phone so they open with no signal.

A plan on paper, not a promise. This page writes down what you decide, counts what you tick and times what you practice. It does not know your home or your building, and it does not replace your fire department. In an emergency, call 911.

The tool and the wording around it were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy); the checklist lines are Ready.gov’s, and the plan itself is written by the people who live in the home. It was not reviewed by a firefighter or a fire safety educator, and it has been checked by programs, not yet used by people. Also in Spanish: Plan de escape en caso de incendio; both pages keep the same plan on this device, and each shows Ready.gov’s lines as its own language’s page words them. The page holds one plan and keeps it until you erase it. Found a mistake? Email [email protected].