Do you have a fire plan.

Get another litter box.

We have an extinguisher and a fire blanket.

Also I get people say there isn’t time for this stuff in the event of a fire (setting up the ladder), but it’s a 20 second job since we have fire escape windows. I do realise we may not have time to save the pets but I can’t face not even having tried to have something available.

Would obvs block under the door first.

We’re also going to start closing all doors (except the bedroom because cats…).

Thanks OP for starting this thread. No DC here but several pets and it really made me pause and think about how we’d cope.

I’ve just ordered extinguishers for upstairs and downstairs and a fire escape ladder for my bedroom and am giving some thought re: pets (will probably purchase a rope to store with the ladder so they can be lowered in my rucksack).

Taking on board what someone has said that in a fire you wouldnt be likely to have time to fish a fire escape ladder out from under the bed and set it up in heavy smoke, would anyone have any other suggestions or advice? We live rurally where there is no permanent fire service, only a community fire station so the firefighters are far less trained and experienced and coming from their homes or jobs first so far longer response times. We would just need to get out ASAP. Our top floor would be too high to jump from though, definitely for my 2 and 4 year old. Their dad works away so it's usually just me with them so I couldnt throw them down to him. We are climbers though so now Im wondering about having a couple of lengths of rope somewhere accessible with a carabiner on the end of each and keeping their climbing harnesses with it and it would be a case of throwing on their harnesses and lowering them down on the ropes and then I can jump if I have no other way out. Would that work? Or even just having the ropes ready with a tightening loop that can be immediately put over their heads and tightened under their arms to drop them down, which would be faster than getting the harnesses on but less secure?

I know some might think it's overkill but we would have no other way out and Ive had a major fire in my own home as a child and knew 2 families who had family members die being trapped in their homes in fires and I would rather overthink and overplan than have that happen.

It's so heartbreaking, Dbro was a childhood friend of the father and it's been on my mind all week. DH's best friend also died in an awful fire so it i suppose happens more often than you think.

I've had my robovac switched off unless im awake/using it which I now plan to do going forward, and I'm going to try and avoid phone charging too.

We are in a townhouse with high windows so not easy to escape, we're hopefully moving soon and i plan to keep keys very accessible etc.

No plan per se, but our fire alarms go off at the drop of a hat (every time I iron or use hair straighteners) so I'm confident they would do the trick in an actual emergency. I test them most days too, because I'm paranoid. Unfortunately our kids have now learned to tune them out because they go off so much, but DH and I are both light sleepers.

I've told the children time and time again to chuck themselves out of the nearest window in the event of an emergency. I've drilled it into them that few broken bones is far better than the alternative. Both kids bedrooms have a sloping roof beneath them so wouldn't be too bad at all.

I almost bought one of those rope ladders after the Grenfall fire, but decided against it because we're only two storeys.

I do, but it’s a bit ott. I survived a house fire and now I am paranoid. If it happens and we’re in bed then we have a window breaker and an unfolding ladder that sits on the window sill

Take the advice of an electrician, do not leave anything with Lithium Ion batteries on charge overnight or whilst you are out. Lithium Ion batteries are impressive in many ways (ability to hold charge, no charging memory and small) but they are also very explosive if damaged / worn out and can go off without warning when on charge.

Only use the original manufacturers chargers, or in the case of USB adapters, quality branded units, not cheapo Chinese knock offs that don't supply the correct voltage or have protections built in against overload and over heating.

Have a few good fire extinguishers around, a 2Kg CO2 and a 6 or 9 lite water and a bucket of dry sand as the extinguishers won't put out a battery.

Yes we had a fire man come round and help us work out a plan and test out smoke and carbon monoxide alarms (many years ago now)

We usually keep our keys in the lounge. In the event of a fire we would be unlikely to get to them so I affixed a command hook to the wall next to the door where a small set of keys hang (out of view of the door/letter box) so we would go straight down the stairs and out of the door. Should we need to stay upstairs it would be my bedroom as it has the biggest window and furthest from the kitchen (most likely point of ignition)

We bought a fire extinguisher and blanket when our neighbour had a tumble dryer fire in their garage. They are the only house with a garage. Ours was in the kitchen and could have been so much worse. We've recently swapped to a dehumidifier instead

Fire terrifies me. As a kid I used to have nightmares i would die in a fire and the chill stayed with me so I like to be prepared.

DS is a teen now so much easier to 'train' him and he's a good head on his shoulders

The details are horrific: https://www.gloucestershire.police.uk/news/gloucestershire/2025/december/woman-and-two-children-believed-to-have-died-in-stroud-house-fire/

Sounds like it tore through the house.

My local Fire Brigade no longer offer fire safety visits to homes
unless they meet certain narrow criteria

Yes and will go over it.

Also adding more fire detectors (inc one in the attic). Also have carbon monoxide detectors.

Wondering whether to add a rope ladder. One wooden staircase. I think I will.

Last thing I know about the block was that they installed cladding on the side return up to the roof space and moved the bin store from its place the other side of the parking area to butt up against it as it had been torched a couple of times.

I don't think council tenant safety has ever been much of a concern for that LA.

I think the fire enforcement team would have liked a look at that! There are so many
policies about fire safety in residential properties!

London. The block was a 1940s one where protect in place would not have worked, due to the shared roof with vents (and probably the chimneys, airing cupboards directly above one another and the gas pipes for all flats running straight up into the meter cupboards that backed directly onto the only spot possible for a cooker). A problem with the electrical supply might have been OK, as long as it didn't mean the single exit was blocked by the cupboard being on fire, as that was right beside it.

I was vaguely impressed with seeing protect in place working on a more modern block (prior to cladding being added to it) down the road, as everybody else had been fine whilst one flat was gutted.

That’s brilliant. I would definitely want the children involved so they knew what to do in case I was unconscious or similar.

I had a fire drill for my children when they were younger.
I always check out fire escape routes when staying or visiting anywhere else.
Today I took granddaughter to the ballet and we were right at the back of the theatre squeezed in back row.
I made a mental escape strategy before the performance started!

I would hope the fire service would be there quick enough with a ladder to save you jumping. But in this day and age.... we cant rely on that sadly
Closing doors and putting a break below the door can buy time
I worked in the control room for 10 years before being a firefighter, luckily we didnt have many people having to jump with fire survival guidance to keep them safe.
Being on the end of that phone was the worst calls of my life! At least as a firefighter you were actially there and able to do something.

Similarly staying in hotels - I always have a plan of routes I will go.
I do feel more vulnerable in hotels if there are smokers potentially putting others at risk.
(Had to evacuate from Premier Inn Gatwick North, at speed down 20 flights of steps from the 10th floor / me with metal knee / partner with a defibrilator pacemaker and angina). We suspect that was a smoker.

At home - nothing charging overnight or when I’m not in the room to monitor.
Dishwasher the same
No tumble dryer for the same reason.

And always plan to evacuate to an upwind safe position.

Advice is don’t tackle the fire, just get everyone out.

If you are in an upstairs bedroom
and can smash a window to get into the garden / drveway
you are away from the fire.

Staying in the building that is burning CANNOT be the better option

YANBU. My dm used to rehearse us escaping if there was a fire and the staircase was impassable.

I've done the same with my ds17. The only issue is he sleeps like the dead, so the chance a smoke alarm will wake him up is tiny. I'll have to go and drag him out.

Thank you for this post. At the moment the main exit route (assuming the stairs are a no go) is via the kids room window, which opens onto a flat roof and then doable to get down into the back garden. Back up is via our bedroom at the front which isn’t great but we could get onto the car roof between us and pass the kids. But DD is due to go up into the attic in the new year (she’s needing her own space now, and the only other spare room is 6ftx6ft). There’s a gable so we could get her but we would need her to know that she has to open the window to be ready for us to get her. We will have this conversation with her before she moves into her new room. I too felt sick when I saw today’s news.