# Develop home emergency plan

Part of the First Class guide: [Introduction & Overview](https://scouting.university/scouts-bsa/ranks/first-class/guide/index.md)

*7. First Aid and Emergency Preparedness*

> **7e.** Develop an emergency action plan for your home that includes what to do in case of fire, storm, power outage, and water outage.

A plan you make calmly, before an emergency, beats decisions made in the middle of one. This requirement asks you to actually develop that plan for your own home — write it out and keep it somewhere your family can find it, not just think through it once.

## Four Situations, One Plan

Your plan needs a clear answer for each of these:

- **Fire**: two escape routes from every room, a family meeting point outside, and confirmation that smoke alarms work.
- **Storm**: where to shelter for your area's most likely severe weather (tornado, hurricane, severe thunderstorm), and how your family gets warnings.
- **Power outage**: how you'll get light and stay warm or cool, what happens to food in the fridge and freezer, and how you'll stay in contact if cell towers are overloaded.
- **Water outage**: where you'll get drinking water and how much you have stored (see [requirement 7f](https://scouting.university/scouts-bsa/ranks/first-class/guide/req7f/) for how to make questionable water safe to drink).

**What Your Plan Should Cover** — For each of the four emergencies

- [ ] A specific action for each family member, not just a general idea of what "should" happen.
- [ ] An outside meeting point everyone knows, for a fire or evacuation.
- [ ] An out-of-area contact person everyone can reach if local phone lines are jammed.
- [ ] Where emergency supplies (flashlights, water, a battery radio) are kept, and that everyone knows where that is.

## Making the Plan Real

Write your plan down and walk through it with your family — a plan that exists only in your head doesn't help anyone else in the house. Practice the parts that benefit from practice, like a fire escape route, the same way your troop practices skills instead of just reading about them.

> **Tip**
>
> Post a copy of the plan somewhere visible, like on the refrigerator or a family bulletin board, so it's there when someone needs it and not buried in a drawer.

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- Previous: [Describe utility hazards](https://scouting.university/scouts-bsa/ranks/first-class/guide/req7d/index.md)
- Next: [Explain emergency water sourcing](https://scouting.university/scouts-bsa/ranks/first-class/guide/req7f/index.md)