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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

firebrigade...locked in bathroom

103 replies

ghostspirit · 18/06/2015 18:58

To ask if your child locked them self in bathroom would you call fire service out? i would not as i think its a waste of their services. just kick the door down. Can fire services refuse to attend if they think its wasted service/they are not really needed?

OP posts:
IfYouWereARiverIdLearnToFloat · 18/06/2015 20:04

Surely it's a waste of their time? If my tiny mum could kick down the bathroom door when my gran collapsed in there I'm sure I could give it a bash...

IfYouWereARiverIdLearnToFloat · 18/06/2015 20:08

Surely it's a waste of their time? If my pocket sized mum managed to kick down the bathroom door when my gran collapsed I'm sure I could give it a bash...

Totality22 · 18/06/2015 20:09

I got locked out when DS was about a year old. I went to get a package and the wind blew the door of our house shut.

DS was in his chair (tied in) and thankfully OH was working literally one road down.. so I was able to run round for keys and let myself back in within about 3 minutes... BUT I'd have had no hesitation to call the Fire Brigade had I needed too.

When my 13 year old younger bro got locked in the bathroom we never even considered calling emergency services.

Original poster
ghostspirit · 18/06/2015 20:14

baddz i just have a hook and eye up the top of the door. no one ever locks it though

OP posts:
formidable · 18/06/2015 20:15

I don't have a lock on the bathroom for exactly this reason.

I never, ever leave the house, even to go in the garden, without my door key in my pocket.

nemno · 18/06/2015 20:16

Apt thread. I just read about the child with her foot stuck in a toy and thought it OTT that the fire brigade were called. It doesn't sound as though the child was in any danger or even distressed.

nemno · 18/06/2015 20:17

Sorry meant to link

WanderWomble · 18/06/2015 20:37

I have solid oak doors with a bolt on the inside. Good luck kicking that down.

Tinklewinkle · 18/06/2015 20:47

We have solid wood doors, with the lock built into the door handle so the lock bit slots into the door frame. The lock goes all the way through the door though so you can unlock it from outside

Impossible to kick in.

DD managed to lock herself in our bathroom once. The lock knob on the inside had fallen off. Huge, huge panic from her. I was trying to keep her calm and talk her through pushing the knob back into the hole so we could unlock it, but she was beyond all reasoning

It did cross my mind to call the fire brigade, but in the end DH got the ladders out and climbed in through the bathroom window.

Purplepoodle · 18/06/2015 21:05

Unscrew handle from the door. Cheaper then kicking it

BlueThursday · 18/06/2015 21:17

My dads best friend died at home and the police were called by a neighbour. They stood and watched my dad kick the front door in (no easy feat) and refused to help to get to him Sad

totallybewildered · 18/06/2015 21:26

I got jammed in the bathroom 10 years ago when the lock broke. My then 4 yo DS kicked the door in. it wouldn't work with all doors, though.

mrsrhodgilbert · 18/06/2015 21:47

When dd2 was about two she managed to lock the back door when I nipped out. It was winter, all windows were closed and I was freezing outside. I want to a neighbours to use the phone and called the fire brigade. They were brilliant but had to cut through the upvc door to get me back in. No way could I have managed without them.

Redglitter · 18/06/2015 21:48

Why would it not be a fire service matter yet be a police matter Confused

Fire service are way better equipped to crash doors than the police.

always amuses me at work when people phone because they 'don't want to bother the fire service'

BertieBotts · 18/06/2015 21:51

Kick the door, or take the handle off with a screwdriver (or a knife if screwdriver not available)

Friends of mine locked themselves on their balcony, three floors up! Toddler closed the door, and then couldn't reach the handle! Luckily they'd given a key to the neighbour and they were in so they came around and opened the door.

Cuppaand2biscuits · 18/06/2015 21:57

My friend called the fire brigade when she was looking after her two year old nephew and he got his fingers trapped in the hinge side of the back door. They came out and took the door off because they couldn't get his fingers free.
It would never have entered my head to phone 999 but I suppose I have quite a handy family who would have taken the door off for me.

BlueThursday · 18/06/2015 22:01

Because it was an unexplained and unexpected death at home. Is there point in having two services attend when the police would need to be there anyway?

Froggio · 18/06/2015 22:07

I have kicked the toilet door in when my toddler locked herself in. It wasn't a lock that could be opened from the outside. I managed to kick the door in and ripped the whole locking mechanism out of the doorframe, I don't know where I got the strength. Adrenaline probably. Anyway if I hadn't have been able to kick in the door I would have had to have called 999.

Redglitter · 18/06/2015 22:14

Putting doors in with the rammit is a specialist task. Needs specially trained officers so they're not the ones who'd deal with the death. And they'd take a lot longer to get there than the fire service would

haiwatha44 · 18/06/2015 22:15

I once got locked in the toilet was only about 5 my nana had to call the fire brigade out cause the door opened outwards and couldn't be kicked in and for whatever reason the fire boys couldn't get it open. They had to climb onto the garage roof and break the window to get me out. Lock got taken off when my grandad got home and was never replaced which was awkward at times cause you couldn't put your hand up to stop someone opening the door.

StillProcrastinating · 18/06/2015 22:18

I have had the fire brigade out for this reason. Not my house, didn't realise toddler would operate the lock (one of the slide across ones). Bath was full, panic ensued. I couldn't break down the door.

Called fire, explained situation, asked if it was something they could help with and if not I would seek help elsewhere. My concern was if toddler got in the bath. They were there in minutes and were so lovely about it. Said it was their first job that shift, and that normally they get called to horrific road accidents, so to start their shift with a quick and easy job, with 2 kids that thought they were heroes (and their mum) was a nice way to start.

2 engines actually turned up, as they had nothing else on at the time and we were very close.

We took chocolates and biscuits round the next day to apologise for bothering them and to say thank you. I felt like an idiot, but they were so brilliant. And they got the door open with minimal damage and without frightening small person.

I know now to go and get a crow bar from the shed, and the lock just pops off....

BlueThursday · 18/06/2015 22:19

well my father managed eventually; shame the officers in attendance didn't suggest the fire service. My father just wanted to reach his friend

SabrinnaOfDystopia · 18/06/2015 22:25

When my brother was about 9, he and his friend locked themselves in the bathroom, and then climbed out of the window and shinned down the drainpipe Shock Rather than kick the door down, my stepdad climbed from the bedroom window, across to the bathroom window - a 20 ft drop onto concrete.

We have a bolt on our bathroom doors very high up and way out of reach of small children....

FrameyMcFrame · 18/06/2015 22:35

DS did this when he was 18 months. It was horrible, we tried smashing the door down, tools, coaching him, he was hysterical crying saying I want mummy. :/
I was on the verge of calling the fire brigade when he suddenly managed to free himself.
ShockShockShock

BettyCatKitten · 18/06/2015 22:54

I locked myself in my aunts toilet when I was 4, my dad kicked the door in.