To beg you all to have a fire evacuation plan

[WelshMaenad]

my friend's house has gone up in flames this evening. Thankfully she and her dd were not home when it happened, but they have list everything. Her neighbours said that it went from a wisp of smoke to a blazing inferno within minutes, had they been home, maybe sleeping, they would have been in a lot of trouble.

I am going out to buy fire escape ladders tomorrow. Please please please review your escape options in your home. Seeing her house in flames has literally petrified me, it was horrific and so frightening.

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?'

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.

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.

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

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?

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

Tanith

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

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).

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.

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! )

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.