To beg you all to have a fire evacuation plan

As another poster said, it's also really important to take notice of fire escapes when you're in public buildings. Some of the worst tragedies involving fires in theatres, bars, hotels etc, have been due to poor awareness of fire exits. A health and safety officer once told me that if a fire starts, people nearly always go back the way they came. I.e, the box office, or the main entrance. Infact your nearest exit could be 10 feet away, beside the stage for example, or in a staff area. Fight the urge to go back the way you came. Doing so can cause crowd crushes, bottlenecks, and delay your escape. Now I always take note of the nearest exit. The closest door. Just incase.

It's apparently good practice given the remote possibility of power surges - but switching things off at the plug is generally sufficient. (They did see an adaptor lying on a shelf top though - and I thought they would have coronaries. I had to explain that I just hadn't got round to throwing it out! )

I'm not sure IWipe. I'm going to ask them that very thing when they come round - ie whether it's just good practice in order to ensure that people really do pay attention to switching off or really necessary. I know that there are lots of issues relating to overloading of plugs though (eg through using adaptors) so maybe that's behind it.

Thanks for the reminder. I'm so sorry for your friend OP, and for all the people mentioned who have lost loved ones. :(

We've got spotlights in the bathroom, so I'll definitely put a smoke alarm in the loft. And we've got to have an escape plan.

When I lived on my own my kettle was faulty and kept switching itself on - luckily I was next to to it when it switched on while empty, so binned it (and cut off the plug).

Tanith

Dh and I are both journalists so we have LOADS of paperwork around. All our cuttings, for one.

what a great thread. im moving house in a few weeks and one of the first things i'll do is book a home safety check

embarrassed that i hadn't taken this issue nearly seriously enough until this thread. i had vaguely assumed i'd have time to get me and the children out without accounting for the speed of fire or the panic and loss of bearings smoke could cause

many thanks for the wake-up call

Good thread.

With regards switching appliances off - is off at the switch sufficient? Is there further benefit in taking the plug out of the socket?

Edam, I'm going to put that in my risk assessment for OFSTED as justification for reducing their my paperwork

Thank you for posting this. We always had a vague plan for this house, but we move at the end of the month and am going to get the fire brigade to come round to the new house ASAP. Thanks again.

If you are replacing your windows, you can get one made into a fire escape window that opens fully. We did this when we moved in here - windows needed replacing anyway (mostly because they opened outwards only, and I was worried baby ds would turn into a toddler who would open one on the second floor where the bedrooms are - so I got ones that open every which way, but we could mainly open them inwards to stop him falling out).

We had a fire safety visit and the officer pointed out we have so much paperwork that it would go up very suddenly.

PS - As part of arranging it, they asked me a few preliminary questions over the phone - one of which was 'Do you have a Fire Evacuation Plan?'

Well I have now had my fire safety visit arranged. (They phoned up yesterday evening.)

So thank you, OP.

Sorry to those in areas where the fire service aren't doing home visits. I thought we all were, it's all about prevention and protection where I am.

Agree with ironing being more dangerous than it's worth.

Pancakes :(

Dame - you are right, though, no good can come of ironing which is why I don't do ironing

Maenad :) I'm really glad you started this thread, its really made me think. I am so glad your friend is doing well after her ordeal and that everyone is pulling together for her - that is so nice.

So having been posting on a thread about fire safety, I went into the utility room to iron some uniform for the DCs for tomorrow to find that I had left the iron on, since, umm, Friday when I last ironed something

Ironing - no good can come from it

Tara, ours said the same thing.

Probably. That's going to be a hard one for me also. It's when all my computer scans are carried out.

It's a good thread Maenad. So glad your friend is coping and has lots of help.

The more people that have a plan and a bit of knowledge of fire safety, the better. Smoke alarms are great, but they don't phone 999 or carry you and your family out so you do need a plan as well.

We had a fire safety check done when dd was newborn. We live somewhere rural and use open fires and a stove for our heating and hot water. The fire brigade were excellent, very clear that they would not reach us in time if there was a serious fire, and we would need to get ourselves out. They recommended we keep a large bag and a rope in the bedroom to lower dd down and then lower ourselves as far as we can and jump. I worry about how we would get ddog out, and whether I could bring myself to leave her.

I meant to add that I do go round and check non-essential stuff is switched off. good for the bills but mainly because I want to reduce fire risks.

We do have a basic plan, that covers which doors/windows to exit from depending on where the fire is. If we cant get downstairs, we can get out of either DCs windows onto a flat roof and down from there. The DCs know where the keys are for the windows.

Have fire alarms and check batteries regularly, and also 3 doors to the outside downstairs.

DP and I leave the keys in the locks for the downstairs doors, doors are locked but in the event of fire we are not wasting time looking for the keys at night.

Yep - that's what I filled in this weekend for mine.

South Glamorgan do.

There's an online form to fill in to request a home safety check, then they'll get in touch.