Do you have a fire plan.

Also no matter what hotel we stay in we check out the fire escape, will literally walk to it from our room to see where it is, how the door opens, etc.

Roughly, yes. I always have one in my head wherever I live.

I worked in an office once, which had the absurd plan that we scaled down a fire ladder out onto the road into the business park. They wouldn't test the ladder because it would then be invalidated, and the idea that the moron whose idea it was would get it right first time in an emergency was laughable.

My plan was always to climb out onto the porch and hang and drop the last few feet into the car park. I'd then shift my car under the porch for others to follow. Since we mostly worked in the same room, it seemed a lot more sensible than "navigate to the back room, assemble the ladder, then drop onto a road".

Yes.

we had a family die near here a few years ago from Xmas lights catching fire. I’ve also had a friend die in a fire from a phone charger. So it’s something I’m aware of.

branded chargers only. Would never run a dishwasher, etc at night.

test the smoke alarms every time the clocks change, then you know it’s done twice a year.

all our upstairs windows are tilt and turn so fully open inwards. Dd actually has a flat roof to get down to just below her window so the fire plan is to get to DD’s room and out there if able. If not then out any window.

we did actually have a bad fire here earlier this year but thankfully just outbuildings, but how fast a fire can spread is scary. And how long it takes a fire engine to get you is even more scary. I can see a fire station from my house but it took nearly 30 mins for a fire engine to arrive. The local one couldn’t come.

I know in theory you should sleep with closed door, but I never shut my door.

I never switch off the fridge at night either. You can't be risk free anyway

The replies here are eye-opening! My fire plan was limited to having smoke detectors. I never think to unplug things at night, usually scedhule the drier to have the cheaper electric hours, and never close doors.

With two small DC and a rather high second storey (the garden kind of dips under the bedroom windows), what's the best investment towards fire safety initially? I can't afford to buy ladders + blankets + extinguisher in one month.

How do you navigate ladders with two children you'd need to hold & one adult? Is it better to have a length of rope to dangle them?

Our fire alarm went off a few months ago in the middle of the night (it was one of the ones that yelled “fire fire” in between beeps - or “carbon monoxide” if it was going off for that reason). My 6 yr old woke up, but decided to just… stay in bed and do nothing. So we had to talk to her about that decision!

(There was no actual fire, it was a faulty alarm that has now been replaced)

Inside is just a fob we turn but from the outside, to get in, you need a key.

If the indoor lock is key operated, and the key is left in the lock, someone outside using a key cannot open the door.

Also if someone shouts ‘fire’ you shouldn’t automatically open your bedroom door but check it isn’t warm before opening it. If you are on different floors the fire could be on your floor not the child’s. If they shouted ‘help’ you would open the door without thinking

The shout ‘fire’ not ‘help’ is usually for when you open the window but I’m guessing if you have a child who cries out dramatically in the night/day for small things saying ‘fire’ would make you think it wasn’t them being dramatic and make you move quicker and respond to fire plan rather than huffing and puffing out of bed to see if they are crying because their duvet has fallen off the bed or they think they have seen a scary monster in their room

Shout Fire rather than help.

in your own house, what difference does it make? If I hear my child shouting, even worst during middle of the night, I jump!

You can get thumb locks for external doors. They unlock from the inside using a thumb-lock, but from the outside using a key.

I know what you mean about thumb-locks from the ones you see on public lavatory cubicle doors meaning they can be locked from the inside by the user but opened from the outside with a coin (?) in an emergency. But please would you explain how you can have those thumb-turn locks on external house doors without it meaning that an intruder could open them? Or is it that there are external door versions of thumb locks that cannot be unlocked from the outside except with a very secure sort of key?

I saw a link to her Instagram. She looked like a wonderful, creative person. I was hoping they didn’t have any pets but it looks like they had a Hungarian Vizsla too. The last photo she took on her Instagram was of a magpie. Bless them all.

www.instagram.com/nu_shearman?igsh=ZDhzOHJ3NW0xcjhw

Tragic. Absolutely heartbreaking. We have several floors and I leave lamps switched on on the landings. I think I’ll turn these off at bedtime going fwd. We have two staircases to the first floor, one from the back of the house and one from the front. I will also close the doors on these going forward. We all sleep on the top floor. We could escape from the bathroom window onto a roof below but I will order a hammer for my children’s rooms so they can also escape that way. I have left my tree lights on for days! My complacency is shocking.

*remember, glass windows need to be broken in the corner.

Yes we've got plans. I've taught the kids all the obvious stuff eg stay low, touch the door, block under the door if you cant get out etc.

Its better to break bones jumping out of a window than die of smoke inhalation and so on.

All the prevention and safety stuff re plugs, cables, cooking, candles etc.

We've got a fire blanket in the kitchen obviously but also a couple of fire extinguishers in the house, which reminds me, got to check the expiration date on them. Got smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detector.

Do you need keys to get out ? Imagine putting a key in a lock in the dark and smoke. Maybe get your locks changed so you just turn a latch.

I’m paranoid that keys would melt in a fire so we couldn’t get out. Is that something that could happen or am I being silly?

Edited as duplicated post.

We have one as also foster carers.
We have roles as adults and what children need to do. We have 2 pathways out of the house (front /back door) depending where the fire is. We also have 2 fire escape windows upstairs. If needed we can go into the attic bedroom as regulations require that to have extra safety 'built in', fire doors, fire retardant celings on the rooms below, which will slow down the progress of the fire and give longer time to be rescued.

If your children have a high sleeper they should have a smoke alarm in their room, due to smoke rising and children being affected more quickly by smoke inhalation .

We have talked about it. We always close all doors downstairs at night and don’t run appliances like washing machine dishwasher tumble dryer.
The kids know to get out and if they can’t we have escape windows in every room, they are to climb out and try to dangle down and let themselves fall rather than jump. Put the dogs inside the duvet cover and drop them down they sleep upstairs in our bedrooms anyway.
We have interlinked hardwired smoke and heat alarms.

You're advised not to tackle a fire/ not to have a fire extinguisher. We have a fire blanket to cover someone but if there is an ACTUAL fire, you get out quickly and safely, you dont stay inside trying to tackle it.

No but now planning to

This thread is a reminder for me to test my alarms, we've got them in every room including each bedroom because dd's sleep with their doors closed.

We live in a dormer bungalow so we can all get out of our bedroom windows and walk down the roof.

It's unimaginable what has happened to that poor family.

We used to live in a house that had bedrooms with narrow window openings across the top and then the rest was a large sealed double glazed window. Each room had an emergency glass hammer to ensure they could be broken plus a plan on how to get to the ground as safely as possible.

As someone who lives with a firefighter nothing charger wise left plugged in over night, knowing how many stairs there are to go down (it’s not like the movies, all you can see is black so any practices with your lights off) the door key always left in the same place (slightly overhangs shelf so is easy to find via touch) also to add fire alarm at the bottom and top of the stairs x