Do you have a fire plan.

My house is “ upside down “ people think it’s weird but I find it weirdly reassuring.

all bedrooms apart from the spare room are downstairs.
we have side extinguishers and a domestic sprinkler system.
all doors are shut at bed time as have monitors in kids rooms.

Not if your exit is blocked by fire or smoke....

In a two storey house
you get OUT
even if it means breaking a limb

The whole stay in place stuff
is for taller buildings

Duplicate post

No change as far as I know, if its more dangerous to leave then you protect in place till we get to you.
Bit political, but i would be interested to see if there have been any loss of fire engines in these areas as there has been across all services.
I sincerely hope not.

I heard that children are more likely to wake up to a spoken voice rather than an alarm, in the night. We have an alarm that says " this is a fire alarm"

Years and years ago we had a fire safety visit from the local fire service. He asked me what I would do if I woke in the night and smoke was everywhere. I said get down on the ground and crawl away from the fire. He told me that is only what happens in films. In reality you are quickly overcome by smoke. His advice was get into one room/stay in the room, shut the door and put a towel or blanket along the bottom of the door. Call the fire brigade and await rescue. This was when I was living in London and the average response time was something like 7 mins. The gist from him seemed to be done attempt to escapee if there is black smoke everywhere, you won’t make it. Retreat, shut the door and wait for help. I’d be interested if the advice has changed.

That's shocking and definitely no advice I have ever given. What area was that?
We always use protect in place unless the fire is in your room. That must have been worst case scenario....

Yes we do. We also have fire extinguishers upstairs and downstairs.

Sensible ideas here which I was going to post. So sad to read about all the recent house fires so I hope this thread makes people think.

DH has just reminded me we have wheelie bins stored out the front which could be used to access the flat roof outside DDs bedroom if one couldn't jump up (but he thinks even I could - the ground is high there). Also plenty of loose bricks (but will order a window smashing device just in case).

So just need to order an escape ladder for our room (though could jump from window and probably not break anything as it's not a true first floor and would chuck loads of clothes, duvet etc onto gravel first). Also talk to DD about checking if the door handle is hot, blocking the gap, shouting fire, not hiding and staying low.

I think from becoming aware of an issue I could be outside her window in less than 2 minutes.

Makes me feel sick to think about it and have been thinking about the poor victims all afternoon since I saw the news headline.

Depressingly enough, when we lived in a council flat, they sent round the Fire Service and their conclusion was if we were in one of the bedrooms, I'd have to break the opening restricted window, throw the children out of it and hope that social services would place them with a nice family (if there was somebody there to catch them before they hit the concrete).

For the other rooms, the assessment was (considering that the roofspace was shared and there was an open vent to the roofspace in the hallway) unless we could get to the front door and the fire hadn't spread to the bit above the stairwell, we were fucked.

Current plan is alarms go off, leave by the front door or the front bedroom window (which does actually open enough for an adult to get out through). It's only slightly higher a drop onto solid bricks rather than concrete, so should get away with just a couple of broken legs.

We also have a fire ladder, and when the kids were small we had a plan about who would get which child, and options for escape.

We have cats.
Not an option.

I have never slept with closed doors and do not plan to start now.

Make sure you can unlock front and back doors. I have a hook with a spare key always ready next to each door. You don't want to be searching for your house keys in an emergency.

💯 what we always advise! Its amazing how much time that buys!

My dad was a fireman, he always made sure every door was closed in the house last thing at night because that gives you critical extra time in a fire. If you’re worried about not hearing your child at night have a monitor instead of leaving bedroom doors open.

My Cubs had a visit from the Fire Brigade and some of the things they were told.

If you can't get out, shut the door and sit in the middle of the room. (You are then easy to find, apparently the instinct is to hide)

Don't look for pets... dogs and cats survival instinct means they will get themselves out. The fire fighters themselves will retrieve caged animals after humans are accounted for.

Test your fire alarms regularly (and CM if you have gas ).

Teach them how to ring 999. (Including your address and post code)

I was talking to DH about it today. DD did a fire safety day at school recently which said to get out straight away and if you can't to put a towel or material around the gap in the door,.open a window and stay near it low to breathe. I'm thinking about buying some rope ladders for the bedrooms in case any of us can't get out via the stairs.

I think people underestimate how fast fire and smoke spread and debilitate. A ladder under your kids bed isn’t going to help if you can’t get to them or it and you’re not going to be able to start whipping ladders out and smashing windows in thick smoke. Get out as fast as possible, if possible and stay low are about all you’d likely be able to manage.

So very sad what happened.

We would include the kids to help them understand and not be scared of us or hide if we attend .

Its a Fire safety visit in scotland.
All you need to do is call your local station.
In Scotland linked alarms are compulsory now at sale of house.
The fire service can fit stand alone alarms in the interim and offer so much advice!

I have a metal ladder in the children’s bedroom along with a fire extinguisher and regularly check alarms.
I think I will ask the local fire service to do a fire safety visit that’s a brilliant idea

Your local Fire Service can do home visits & check/ install smoke alarms etc & can advise on this. They can then replace faulty or expired alarms too. I know older or vulnerable people are considered as more of a priority for this service but is def worth asking. Think it’s called a FireSafe visit & they can advise on an escape route & other family members on what to do in the event of. Eg something I’d completely forgotten about was a closing internal doors all the time & esp when going to bed - as a standard one closed can hold back a fire for up to 20mins & with them being able to reach you in 10mins - this minimises the chance of it spreading. Was well worth the visit IME.

Get yourself out.
Teach everybody to get themselves out.
Explain to children that a broken leg from jumping out of a window heals in a matter of weeks.
Cuts from climbing through a broken window heal faster than smoke inhalation or burns.

Get into the habit of switching everything off every night

and ALWAYS unplug Christmas lights because they are a sky high risk