Nursing care
Fire Safety: the method, the errors, and the exam
Written and reviewed by Dana Whitfield, RN, MSN · 5 min read · Updated September 2026
Short answer
Fire safety on a hospital unit follows RACE: rescue anyone in immediate danger, alarm to alert the building, contain the fire by closing doors, then extinguish only a small, contained fire with PASS. The order matters because rescuing before alarming can cost the time needed to evacuate others, and extinguishing before containing risks the fire spreading unchecked.
What the skill is for
Fire safety is a protocol, not a reflex. Hospitals hold patients who cannot walk, cannot see smoke, or cannot follow an instruction to leave, so a fire response has to account for people who need to be moved before anyone can think about an alarm or an extinguisher. RACE exists because panic produces the wrong sequence: staff reach for an extinguisher before they have alerted anyone else, or they open every door on the way out and feed the fire more oxygen.
The skill applies wherever fire risk exists on a unit: oxygen tubing near a heat source, a malfunctioning piece of equipment, a wastebasket fire in a soiled utility room. It is tested because it sits at the intersection of two things nursing programmes care about most, patient safety and clear priority-setting under pressure. A nurse who can state the steps in order but freezes when a monitor alarms and a trash can smoulders at the same time has not actually learned the skill.
The method, step by step
Rescue comes first: move anyone in immediate danger, starting with those in the room or space where the fire is, then those nearest to it. This is not a full evacuation of the unit, it is removing the people who cannot get out on their own from the area of immediate threat.
Alarm is next: activate the nearest fire alarm pull station and notify the operator or switchboard per facility protocol, giving the location clearly. Contain follows: close doors and windows to the fire's room and to the unit corridor doors, which slows smoke and fire spread and buys time for a full response. Extinguish is last, and only for a fire that is small, contained, and one the nurse can safely fight, using PASS: pull the pin, aim at the base of the fire, squeeze the handle, sweep side to side. If the fire is not small and containable, the correct action after contain is to continue evacuation and wait for the fire brigade, not to attempt extinguishing.
Where it goes wrong
The most common error is reordering the steps, usually reaching for the extinguisher before the alarm has been sounded. Even if the nurse succeeds in putting the fire out, the delay in alerting the building means other staff and patients had less warning time than they should have.
A second error is treating rescue as a full evacuation rather than removing people from immediate danger only. Evacuating an entire unit before containing the fire and confirming its size wastes time and can put stable, mobile patients through unnecessary disruption and risk in transit. A third error is attempting to extinguish a fire that has already spread beyond a wastebasket or small contained area; PASS is for a fire the nurse can control in seconds, not one that needs the fire service.
Practising it deliberately
Say RACE and PASS aloud, in order, until the sequence is automatic rather than something to reconstruct under stress. Then practise applying it to scenarios that vary the detail: a fire in an occupied patient room, a fire in an empty supply closet, a fire with a patient on oxygen nearby. The steps do not change, but what counts as rescue does.
Walk your own unit, real or simulated, and locate the nearest pull station, the nearest extinguisher, and the fire doors before you need them. During fire drills, treat the drill as the practice rather than as an interruption, and notice which door swings shut on its own versus which one a nurse has to close manually. That distinction is often the difference between a contain step done correctly and one skipped.
Applying it on the exam
NCLEX questions on fire safety usually present a scenario and ask for the first action, or ask the nurse to sequence several actions. The trap answer typically places an early step, such as extinguishing, ahead of a step that should come first, such as alarm or rescue of a patient in the immediate area.
Read for where the patient is relative to the fire. If a patient is in the room with the fire, rescue is the first action regardless of what else the question offers as a tempting first step. If no patient is in immediate danger, the first action moves to alarm. Watch for distractor options that describe an extinguishing action using correct PASS technique but at the wrong point in the sequence, since NCLEX often tests whether the sequence itself, not just the individual actions, is understood.
A worked example
A nurse smells smoke and finds a fire starting in a wastebasket in an empty patient room, with no patient currently in the room. The correct first action is to activate the nearest fire alarm pull station, because rescue does not apply here and alarm becomes the first step in the sequence.
Next, the nurse closes the door to the room to contain the fire, then assesses whether it remains small enough to fight. If it is still confined to the wastebasket, the nurse uses PASS: pull the pin on the extinguisher, aim at the base of the flames, squeeze the handle, and sweep side to side until the fire is out. If the fire has grown beyond that point, the nurse leaves it contained behind the closed door and evacuates adjacent rooms, waiting for the fire response team rather than attempting to extinguish it.
The next step on this is the same as on everything else here: answer questions and read the rationales. Our safe and effective care practice questions are the closest set to what this page covers.
One question from the safe and effective care set
A nurse on a medical unit receives report on four clients. Which client should the nurse assess first?
Rationale
Prioritization items are airway, breathing, circulation, in that order — the ranking survives every rewording. Audible gurgling around a fresh tracheostomy is a partially obstructed airway and it is the only option that can kill the client in the next few minutes. Fever, post-op pain, and a glucose of 232 are all real problems that need the nurse, just not first.
Answer: C
Common questions
What does RACE stand for in nursing?
Rescue, alarm, contain, extinguish. It is the order of actions a nurse takes when a fire is discovered, with rescue limited to removing people in immediate danger, not a full unit evacuation.
What does PASS stand for?
Pull, aim, squeeze, sweep. It describes how to operate a fire extinguisher: pull the pin, aim at the base of the fire, squeeze the handle, and sweep side to side, and it only applies to a small, contained fire.
Should a nurse always try to put out a fire?
No. PASS is only appropriate for a fire that is small and contained, such as one confined to a wastebasket. A larger fire should be contained by closing doors, with the nurse evacuating the area and waiting for the fire service.
Is rescue always the first step in RACE?
Rescue is first only if someone is in immediate danger from the fire. If no one is in the immediate area, alarm becomes the first action, which is a common source of confusion on exam questions.
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