Fire accidents can take place almost anywhere on our planet. A simple short circuit or a misfired cracker flying into cloth curtains and there’s an entire building on fire within minutes. There’s almost no time for thinking the possibilities and looking around to fathom in what’s going on. You must always be prepared wherever you go and the best is to keep looking for fire hazard signals and signboards in the public places.

Here are some important fire safety signs that you should be aware of in a public place:

1. Means of escape: Look out for signboards that give you emergency exit routes, staircase right down to the ground floor and the likes. The escape means would always be clearly mentioned around. Once the fire is out there, it will be difficult for you to read any sign with that amount of smoke around. So the best is to be preventive rather than being instinctive.

2. The exit and the entrance: Clogging exits and entrances will spell hazard for you. The small entrances and exit only mean stampede when casualty hits. People will be running through them and the exits will be blocked for no good. So it’s always the option to consider all the possible ways of finding yourself out of the fire as soon as it breaks.

3. Extinguishers: Fire extinguishers will always come handy if they are in date and full. You must know how to use them before you dismantle them from the wall. There will be sign boards referring to the place where the fire extinguishers are there, look out for them.

4. Staircase route: The stairs that will lead you out of the building too will have signboards in any public premise. You just need to be aware enough to find out in which direction the emergency exit is to find yourself out.

There are just as many signs and signboards installed all around the public places but people tend to miss out on them. After the fire breaks out, there is almost no way people can read the sign boards because of the thick blackening and blinding smoke around. There is an act on the regulation of fire that made it clear that these four things need to have signs:

1. Prohibition and fire.
2. Mandatory signs
3. Caution
4. Safe condition.

According to these four phases of fire, all the signs should clearly state what’s to be done and how. Like for example, you always see a sign that has- a man running on stairs; that means that is supposed to be the exit stairs that will take you directly to the ground floor and also, the stairs are emergency exits in multistoried buildings.

Whenever you visit a public place like mall, hospital, exhibition, marriage or party halls make a mental note of the fire exits and look out for these signages. This can save you crucial time in case of an emergency.