Our 3-Step Escape Plan

  • First Escape Route
  • Second Escape Route
  • Meeting Place
Notes

Use this space to note any additional information about your escape plan, i.e. who will assist

Your checklist

  • Get low

    Smoke is poisonous and more deadly than flames.

    If you breathe smoke for more than a few breaths it can kill you.

  • Be fast

    A house fire can kill you in less than three minutes.

    Don't spend time trying to save possessions.

  • Close doors

    A closed door buys you time.

    It slows down the spread of fire, giving you more time to get to safety.

  • Get out - stay out!

    People have died by going back into a fire.

    Don't leave the meeting place to go back inside for any reason.

Call emergency services as soon as you are out and safe. Ask for FIRE.

Clearly state your address and let the operator know it anyone is still inside or has not made it to the safe meeting place.

Emergency call 111 Emergency text 111

House Fire Readiness

Our How to Survive a House Fire campaign highlights the 3 steps you need to do to get set up to protect your family in the event of a house fire, so you can all get out within minutes, by having smoke alarms in the right places and a 3-Step Escape Plan.

Our approach

Rather than focusing on the ‘why’, which is something we’ve already established through previous campaigns, we’re focusing on communicating exactly what you need to do, right there and then – you don’t need to go to a website or seek more information, although you can: escapemyhouse.co.nz.

The call to action is simple and self-explanatory, a direct response to a learning from research carried out in late 2023 – ‘If it is a three-step plan, it should be simple. Tell me now.”

The 3 steps we are asking the public to take in the campaign and through our online escape planning tool are:

  1. Install smoke alarms in every bedroom, hallway and living area
  2. Plan two ways out
  3. Agree on a safe meeting place.

We've developed a one-pager [PDF, 1.7 MB] about the campaign for your information.

Target audience

How to Survive a House Fire is designed to shift the beliefs and actions of a specific audience mindset, the ‘Intenders’. From our Segmentation Model, we know that the Intenders acknowledge the seriousness of fire and they buy into being fire safe, yet our research shows that they are lagging behind in our smoke alarms and escape planning metrics:

  • While the incidence of at least one working smoke alarm in Aotearoa New Zealand homes is now over 90%, there is room to shift more households towards having a smoke alarm in every bedroom, hallway and living area. Here, the Intenders audience segment lags, with only one third (35%) claiming to have smoke alarms in every bedroom, hallway and living area vs the national average of 42%.
  • The incidence of household escape plans among the public has reached a new peak of 68% in FY23/24 and while we also saw a sustained increase among the Intenders, only 48% of the Intenders have an escape plan for their household in the event of a fire.

To ensure more households in Aotearoa have working smoke alarms installed in the right places and quality escape plans, we need the Intenders to act and to see that being prepared to protect their family in a house fire is easy and can’t stay on the ‘to-do’ list.

Kids aged 8-12

The below video has been produced for kids aged 8-12, which aims to educate and encourage them to prompt their household to create a 3-step escape plan at home.