Fire Prevention Week: The 30-Minute Alarm, Escape Route and Charging Station Check for Canadian Homes

Now walk the house again, this time as if the alarm has just gone off at three in the morning. Start in each bedroom, because that is where most people will be when it matters.

Two ways out, and a window that works

Every bedroom needs two ways out: the door, and something else. In most homes the something else is a window, and building codes set a clear benchmark for what makes one usable. The Alberta Safety Codes Council's guide to bedroom windows summarizes the National Building Code requirement: unless the bedroom has an exterior door or the building has sprinklers, it needs at least one window that opens from the inside without tools or special knowledge, with an unobstructed opening of at least 0.35 m² (about 3.77 square feet) and no dimension under 380 mm (15 inches).

Bring a tape measure for this part. Open each bedroom window as far as it will go and measure the clear opening, not the glass. A casement that swings wide open usually passes easily. An older slider or a small awning window often does not. The code also recommends the sill be no higher than 1.5 m above the floor. For a high basement window, a sturdy piece of built-in furniture underneath can make the difference between a window that meets the numbers and one a person could actually climb out of.

Basement bedrooms deserve a closer look. If the window opens into a window well, the well needs about 760 mm of clear space in front of the window so a person can get out. A well filled with leaves, or covered by a heavy grate that only opens from outside, turns a legal window into a trap.

Keep in mind that the egress window rule is a construction requirement, so your window may be older than the rule. The measurement is still the best benchmark you have for whether someone could get out through it.

Walking the route and choosing a meeting place

Once the bedrooms are done, follow the path each person would take to get outside. Look for boxes on the stairs, a bike in the front hall, a deadbolt that needs a key nobody can find in the dark. The National Fire Protection Association's escape planning advice suggests sketching a simple floor plan with two ways out of each room and the location of each smoke alarm, then choosing a meeting place in front of the house, such as a neighbour's driveway, a mailbox or a light post.

Before you finish this stop, set a date for a real drill. NFPA recommends practising twice a year and using the drill to find out whether children and heavy sleepers actually wake to the alarm. If they do not, assign someone to wake them.

The Manitoba government's Fire Prevention Week information adds a useful twist: practise once during the day and once at night, so everyone knows what the route feels like in the dark.

This is the stop Fire Prevention Week 2026 is built around. The campaign theme, announced by the National Fire Protection Association as "Charge into Fire Safety: Safe Charging Is a Superpower," focuses on the everyday habits that decide whether a lithium-ion battery stays boring. For large batteries like e-bikes, scooters and power tools, the campaign's advice is to charge outside and away from exits, because these packs store more energy and a fire can grow quickly if one fails.

The one-line rule

Before you start this last loop, one thing is worth knowing. No Canadian fire or building code tells you where you may charge a phone or an e-bike inside a single-family house. Everything in this section is guidance from fire services and Health Canada, and it all points the same way. If you remember one line, make it this:

Charge on a hard surface, where you can see it, away from beds and couches, and never between a sleeping room and the way out.

That line borrows its most Canadian detail from Health Canada's lithium-ion battery safety advice, which says to charge at room temperature, where you can see the battery, away from soft surfaces that trap heat, and away from exit doors in case of fire. It also has a point that matters in a Canadian October: do not try to charge a battery in below-zero temperatures. An e-bike that has sat in a cold garage or shed should come up to room temperature first.

Walking the charging loop

Go back through the house one last time and stop at every outlet with something plugged in. At each one, ask four quick questions.

• What is it sitting on? A desk, a counter or a bare floor is fine. A bed, a couch, a pillow or a pile of laundry is not.
• Where is it, compared with the exits you just walked? An e-bike or scooter charging in the front hall, at the bottom of the stairs, or against the back door sits right on the escape route you just checked.
• Whose charger is it? Health Canada advises using the charger that came with the device and looking for a Canadian certification mark such as CSA, cUL or cETL. A replacement e-bike charger should come from the original manufacturer or the retailer.
• How does the battery look and feel? Toronto Fire Services' lithium-ion safety tips list the warning signs: an odour, a change in colour or shape, too much heat, leaking, or noise from the battery.

The NFPA tip sheet adds popping or hissing sounds and smoke to that list, and its advice for any of them is simple: stop using the device. Health Canada goes a step further for e-bikes and scooters. Never modify, tamper with or build your own battery, and replace it only with the manufacturer's part, because an after-market pack from an unknown source may not meet safety standards.

Finally, unplug anything that is fully charged. Leaving a device on the charger long after it hits 100 per cent adds heat and stress to the battery for no benefit.

Moving a charger somewhere better

Most fixes at this stop take seconds. Phones move from the bed to the nightstand. The laptop moves off the couch cushion. A power bank comes off a child's duvet.

The e-bike is usually the harder one, because the best spot depends on your home, your weather and, for condo owners, your building's rules. Our Fire Prevention Week piece on October 5 goes into that in detail. For tonight, the goal is simpler: get the e-bike or scooter off the route between the bedrooms and the door, onto a hard floor, somewhere you will see and hear it.