Stop, Drop & Roll - When, How & Why
August 25, 2006
In the movies, you always see people running down the street when they’re clothes catch on fire. It’s nice and dramatic & makes for good film footage but, obviously from their usual demise, it’s not the right thing to do!
At schools, day cares and other public events, we teach the correct thing to do if your clothes accidentally catch fire.”Stop, Drop & Roll!” It’s simple, quick and easy to remember. STOP - when you realize that your clothes are on fire, STOP what you are doing and don’t panic. DROP - DROP what you’re doing and DROP to the ground. ROLL - cover your face with your hands (to protect your eyes, mouth and nose) and ROLL across the ground and don’t stop until someone tells you to.
It sounds extremely basic but it works! Let me explain. For some reason, people think that they can run away from their clothes when they catch fire. This is why we start with STOP - when you stop and stay calm, you continue to think rationally. If you panic and start running around, you are just adding oxygen to the fire which makes the situation worse. DROP - when you drop to the ground, you remove the option of running and this prepares you for the next step. ROLL - By rolling around on the ground, you are using your body to smother the fire. Roll one continuous way, don’t just roll back and forth. This will only smother part of the fire. Rolling one way will cover all parts of the body, smothering all of the fire. While you are rolling, cover your face with your hands. This protects your eyes and lungs from heat and smoke from the fire.
As always, practice makes perfect! Emergency situations are not the time to try to remember what to do. By practicing with your family, you will KNOW what to do. PRACTICE your home exit drills! PRACTICE for weather emergencies! And PRACTICE “Stop, Drop & Roll.”
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