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This paper addresses how residents can safely access shelters from their buildings. Firstly, we investigated Xiaying Village, a typical community with severe buildings damage at the epicentre of the Ms5.0 magnitude earthquake in Tonghai that occurred on August 13, 2018, and found that the injured residents when escaping resulted from the damage to masonry buildings. Secondly, a probabilistic approach combining response spectrum and allowable maximum acceleration is proposed to estimate the damage risk of masonry buildings with inadequate seismic performance in old communities. Thirdly, three models are proposed to assess the risk of the escape path, which include all scenarios of the escape of residents to shelters. Finally, an accessibility analysis of the paths that residents may choose to escape to the shelter is presented. The results of the community escape case study in the Tonghai earthquake show that the probabilistic approach to estimating the escape risk is feasible, and the number of damaged buildings in the escape path dictates the accessibility of residents to the shelter. The proposed method is important for guiding old community residents to escape when a strong earthquake strikes, and it is an effective way to improve community disaster resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]