Hotel Fire Safety For Families

In February of this year, we had a wake-up-to-reality moment that I have been meaning to post for anyone who stays at a hotel.  A fire alarm in our hotel in Philadelphia sounded at 4:30 in the morning, waking us up from a dead sleep.  The weather was snowy and about 14 degrees outside.  We were confused and stumbling in the dark, a family of six in pajamas and night gowns, a nursing three month old baby included, all up on the ninth floor.  It took me 30-60 seconds just to find my glasses in the dark, as they got knocked down and I am literally blind without them.  It took us probably 7 minutes to get organized and evacuate our room. I was mortified by the entire experience. Furthermore, if my husband had been on call at work and not in the room, I had a herniated disk in my back and would not have been able to carry the baby and toddler down nine flights of stairs without extreme difficulty.
When I tried to research best escape times for a hotel fire, I discovered some disturbing facts.

• Most of the time, the fire department is not notified when an alarm sounds. This was true in our scenario, no fire fighters responded ever.
• The general consensus is that there is no safe time limit to get out of a hotel room, but evacuating in 2-3 minutes is a must.

Now whenever we travel, we do the following things:

• Keep a diaper bag stocked with all phones, keys, wallets, etc. right by the door.
• Keep shoes right by the door.
• Sleep with contacts in if possible when away from home, especially if it's just a few nights.
• Sleep in clothes that are suitable for evacuating, ie, for girls this means jammies with shorts or leggings versus Minnie Mouse night gowns.
• Always immediately physically check the locations of staircases and escape routes upon check-in. Trying to do this in the dark is impossible.
• If your door is not hot, and there is not smoke coming through, open your door early. You may be able to catch another evacuating family or person if you have mobility issues or need help with small children.
• Never assume it's a false alarm. Ours was, thank goodness, or we would've been dead because it took so long for us to evacuate.
• If possible, try to stay on a lower floor.  Unfortunately, if you are a big family staying at a place like Homewood Suites or Residence Inns, they often will only have their bigger units on the higher floors.
• Talk to your children about hotel safety in general immediately upon check-in, and spend a moment or two each day refreshing on the topics.

If you're in Philly with kids, visit the Firefighter's Museum.