One of the best ways to be prepared for a fire at your church is to make sure that you have a fire safety plan. Consider where people are the most in your church and how easy it is for people to get to safety. Once you have a plan, share it with everyone in your church so that everyone remains safe if a fire does start in your church.

Inspect Your Church Regularly for Fire Hazards

• Check your fire alarms to make sure they work well every month. Have extra batteries on hand, so that you can replace them as needed.
• Have your built-in sprinkler system inspected annually to make sure they will work when you need them.
• Ask an electrician to inspect the wiring in your church on an annual basis to make sure that everything is working, and there are no dangers from wiring that is old.
• If your church uses candles during ceremonies or services, decide who is responsible for them and have them monitored. Have that person monitor them while they are lit and make sure they are in an area where they won’t cause a fire if they get knocked over.
• If you must have gas on the church property for lawn equipment, make sure the gas can or shed with the equipment is not near any buildings.
• If you don’t have the proper signs for emergency exits, install them right away. In a high-stress situation, it is ideal to have large signs marking the exits. Consider printing emergency exit maps for each room in the church and post them by each doorway.

Church Insurance

• Consider church insurance that covers accidental fires and arson, so you can rebuild if your church is damaged by a fire.
• Make sure the kitchen in your church is used properly and regularly inspected for any fire hazards. Keep a fire extinguisher in the kitchen, and make sure everyone that uses the kitchen knows how to use a fire extinguisher properly.

Have a few fire drills a year in your church to monitor how long it takes for everyone to exit the church. If it takes too much time, you may need to reassess your fire safety plan.