The Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District shared some tips regarding fire safety in hotels, motels and short-term rentals, since the summer travel season is beginning.
If you are staying in a hotel or motel, TMFPD recommends:
- Choose a hotel or motel with smoke alarms and a fire sprinkler system.
- Ask the front desk what the fire alarm sounds like when you check in.
- Review the escape plan in your room when you first arrive.
- Find all exits and count the number of doors between your room and any exits.
- Make sure exit doors are unlocked. Report any locked doors to management.
- Keep your room key by your bed so you can take it with you in case of a fire.
- If the alarm sounds, leave right away, close all doors, and use the stairs to exit.
If you are staying in a short-term rental, TMFPD has some more tips, since it says these rentals are not regulated like hotels and motels:
- Make sure everyone in the rental knows the address.
- Everyone should know two ways out of every room and out of the rental.
- Check for working smoke alarms in every sleeping room, outside each sleeping area, and on every floor.
- Check for working carbon monoxide alarms.
- Make sure you can open all doors and windows that lead outside.
- Choose an outside meeting place a safe distance away from the building.
In case of a fire, if you must escape through smoke, TMFPD says you should get low and try to go under the smoke to the exit.
If you can't escape, you should shut off all fans and air conditioners, stuff wet towels in the cracks around doors, call the fire department and let them know your location, and then wait at a window and signal with a flashlight or light-colored cloth.
