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• Leave immediately. Don’t try to save your valuables.

• Stay low and keep your mouth covered. Crawl on the floor, under the smoke (which contains toxic gases that can disorient or overcome you).

• Feel closed doors for heat. Use the back of your hand to feel the top of the door, the doorknob, and the door frame. If they feel hot, use another escape route.

• Stop, drop, and roll. If your clothing catches fire, stop running, drop to the ground, and roll over and over until the fire goes out.

• Stay out. Once you are out of the fire, don’t go back in for anything.

• Call 911 from a neighbor’s house.

Home fire extinguishers

Fire extinguishers can put out a small fire in your home or contain it until firefighters arrive. Put a fire extinguisher on each floor of your home where the risk of fire is the greatest, such as in the kitchen and near the fireplace and furnace. Place it out of the reach of children and near an escape route. Read the manufacturer’s instructions so you will know how to use it if you have to.

Fire extinguishers come in different types, or classes. Each type puts out particular kinds of fires. Older fire extinguishers use colored geometric shapes with letter designations and two-word descriptions to differentiate the types of extinguishers. Class A extinguishers are identified by the capital letter A, a green triangle, and the words “ordinary combustibles” and can extinguish fires involving items such as cloth, paper, or wood. Class B extinguishers are identified by a capital B, a red square, and the words “flammable liquids” (such as grease, oil, gasoline, or oil-based paint). Class C extinguishers—identified by a capital C, a blue circle, and the words “electrical equipment”—put out fires involving electrical wiring, appliances, fuse boxes, and circuit breakers. Class D extinguishers are identified by a capital D, a yellow star, and the words “combustible metals.”

Many fire extinguishers can put out more than one type of fire and are labeled accordingly. Newer fire extinguishers use self-explanatory pictures and two-word designations to identify the types of fires they fight. The labels may also show a diagonal red line through a picture of a type of fire the extinguisher is not suitable for; for example, a diagonal red line through an illustration of an electrical plug and electrical outlet on fire means that the extinguisher should not be used to put out electrical fires. Some extinguishers can put out all types of fires.

High-rise fires

If you live or work in a high-rise building, become familiar with the special fire-safety and prevention measures required for these structures. Take part in fire drills, and practice escaping from your building on your own. The following simple fire-safety steps can help prevent loss of life in a high-rise fire:

• Learn your building evacuation plan and practice it.

• Recognize the sound of your building’s fire alarm and know the emergency number to call in your area. Don’t assume that someone else has already called for help.

• Never lock or prop open fire doors in halls or stairways.

• Install smoke alarms in your apartment or condominium.

If a fire occurs in a high-rise building in which you live or work, try to stay calm and follow these procedures:

• If you are in an apartment or office, feel all doors you use to escape to see if they are warm. If a door feels warm, don’t open it. Stay in the room and stuff cloths or tape in the cracks around the door, and cover vents to keep smoke out. Call the fire department and tell them where you are trapped; then wait to be rescued.

• If the door is not warm, stay low while opening it a bit to see if there is smoke or fire in the hallway.

• If you don’t see smoke or fire, follow your building’s evacuation plan to escape.

• Take the stairs down to the ground floor; never take an elevator.

• If you don’t hear the building’s fire alarm, pull the nearest fire alarm.

• If smoke or flames block your way out, go to a site far from the source.

• Once you