Why does fire safety start with a plan?
The first minutes of a fire depend on where you sleep, which door you leave by and where the extinguisher hangs. All of it shows on the floor plan: rooms, doors, hallway and apartment door. Thinking it through on the plan turns “where should the smoke alarm go?” from a guess into an answer.
Example: a 104 m² three-bedroom apartment
| Space | Inside dimension | Area | Smoke alarm |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main bedroom | 3.95 × 3.95 m | 15.6 m² | Yes |
| Child’s room | 3.10 × 3.95 m | 12.2 m² | Yes |
| Living room | 4.75 × 5.55 m | 26.4 m² | Yes |
| Study | 4.75 × 3.35 m | 15.9 m² | Yes |
| Hall | 7.15 × 1.10 m | 7.9 m² | Yes |
| Kitchen | 2.90 × 3.75 m | 10.9 m² | None |
| Bathroom | 2.55 × 3.75 m | 9.6 m² | None |
| Entrance | 1.50 × 3.75 m | 5.6 m² | Extinguisher here |
Smoke alarm placement: which rooms?
- In the bedrooms. It is hard to notice the smell of smoke while asleep; the alarm has to wake you.
- In the hallway leading to the bedrooms. In most homes the hallway is the escape route, and smoke fills it first.
- At least one on every floor. On every level of a duplex or detached house.
- Not in the kitchen or right next to the bathroom. Cooking fumes and bathroom steam cause false alarms. The US rule (IRC) keeps alarms at least 3 ft (about 90 cm) horizontally from a bathroom door, and photoelectric alarms at least 6 ft (about 1.8 m) from a cooking appliance.
In the US, the NFPA recommends testing a smoke alarm monthly and replacing it 10 years after its manufacture date.
Rules by country
| Country | Smoke alarm in a home |
|---|---|
| Türkiye | No national requirement for homes. The regulation requires automatic detection in residential buildings only above 51.50 m. |
| Germany | Required in all 16 states; generally in bedrooms, children’s rooms and hallways that serve as escape routes. |
| France | At least one alarm in every home since 8 March 2015. |
| Netherlands | One on every floor with a living room, bedroom or kitchen, since 1 July 2022. |
| England (rented homes) | A smoke alarm on every floor used as living space; a carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fixed fuel-burning appliance (boiler, stove), other than a gas cooker. |
| US (new homes) | In every bedroom, outside the bedrooms and on every floor; alarms interconnected. |
Where it isn’t mandatory, a smoke alarm is still a cheap, easy precaution to fit. Details and sources are on the fire safety page.
Fire extinguisher: where and which type?
The Turkish fire regulation has no separate “one extinguisher per apartment” rule; the number of extinguishers is calculated from the building’s area (in low-hazard cases, one 6 kg extinguisher per 500 m²). If you buy one for your home, the placement rules are the same:
- Keep it on the way out. In the example it is at the entrance, next to the apartment door: you pick it up on the way to the door, not by walking towards the fire.
- Never behind a door, in a closed cupboard or next to a heater. If it isn’t visible, mark its place.
- Wall-mounted. A 4–12 kg extinguisher hangs at a height of no more than about 90 cm from the floor.
- Type: a multi-purpose dry powder extinguisher for the solid combustibles found at home (Class A).
- Maintenance: check it in place once a year; at the end of the fourth year the extinguishing agent is renewed and a pressure test is done.
Escape route: from the farthest corner to the door
The Turkish fire regulation sets no escape distance for residential buildings of up to 4 floors including the basement, or for detached, semi-detached and terraced houses. In taller residential buildings, every point inside an apartment must be within 20 m of the apartment door; 30 m if the building has sprinklers. The farthest point is counted 40 cm in from the wall.
In the example apartment the farthest point is the corner of the primary bedroom: the walk to the door, along the hallway to the entrance and the apartment door is about 12.7 m. From the far corner of the living room it is about 11.2 m. Both are under 20 m.
- Keep the space in front of doors clear. Don’t let a cabinet or shoe rack narrow the hallway.
- Leave the apartment door key in its place. Searching for a key at a locked door at night costs time.
How to make a home escape plan
- Draw the plan. With rooms, doors, windows and the apartment door to scale.
- Mark the way out of every room. In the US, the NFPA recommends planning two ways out of every room (such as a door and a window).
- Place the smoke alarms and the extinguisher. Using the rules above.
- Pick a meeting point outside. Everyone gathers there, so it’s clear who is out.
- Share the plan with everyone in the home and practise it regularly.
How to do it in Nodaform
In the editor’s Safety step you place fire extinguisher, smoke, heat and carbon monoxide detector, sprinkler, fire hose cabinet, emergency exit sign and assembly point symbols on the plan Plus. Fire check measures the walking distance from every point to an exit through the doors, marks any spot over the limit on the plan and checks the distance to the extinguishers; the rules can be set to Turkey, Germany, the UK or the US Pro. You can print the result as an evacuation plan sheet with escape arrows Pro.
This article is general information. Rules vary by country, region and building and may change; for your own building, check the official text or ask the building management or the fire service. The figures were checked against official sources on 18 October 2026.