To expect neighbours to tell us their adjoining house is on fire?

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Had to stop lurking and join up for this one. Woke up early hours Monday coughing and hearing a screaming child; our house was full of a peculiar dirty smoke smell that I have never smelt before, and there was a fire engine outside and a distraught child all alone saying their kitchen was on fire and it's been put out.

Aibu to think that given how quickly fire can spread that we should have been warned? If they had to call the fire brigade and get their children out then they surely should have knocked? My dogs were sleeping in the adjoining room and my kids were upstairs ffs.

DH thinks iabu and shouldn't say anything to them as they would have been preoccupied savingthemselves and also because they are really rough and he doesn't want the hassle.

The house is rented it's semi detached, the landlord is invisible and the house is an absolute state think broken windows rubbish everywhere, stinks of weed, copious amounts of cats. They don't work and rents in the close are higher than HB. The landlord gives the address as his address on the land registry. Their children are practically feral and often wreak havoc. They didn't even have a fuvking smoke alarm!

Needs - I do hope you all got okay, I cant even imagine.

I do agree with the above posts that it's all good and well saying what I might do until it actually happens. However, I would hope that I would at least instinctively warn everyone of the danger not just the ones I cared about.

Thanks Bertie I wasn't aware about this.

I know that day to day I consider others (although my posts don't particularly allude to this) and so in an emergency I would also hope I would naturally consider others safety after my own families and not just leave them at risk.

A smoke alarm costs under £10 from Tesco so if the LL didn't fit one, put it in yourself then argue.

smoke alarms became law in rental properties from Oct 1st. Battery or mains is more detailed, but it is now the law to have the alarms. The tenants are responsible for batteries and checking.

if the landlord gives his address as the rental then it is possible he hasn't told the mortgage company or the insurers it is rented. So no insurance.

but if drugs are being taken, it isn't the landlord doing that.

not quite sure where you go from here but if this is the other half of your semi, it is a hazard to you.

When an elderly relation's garage was on fire, she was deaf and didn't hear them knocking, so the firefighters kicked in her door and ran upstairs to wake her.

I don't think that's correct bertie its become mandatory by law for LL to fit both smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms regardless of the age of the property. This is what our last agent told us, I noticed more than 2 alarms in some rooms and inquired.

In some properties they are fixed to the mains where possible, others may not be.

I think the fire services should tell next door neighbours to get out as a precaution especially if there is smoke, how do they know these people don't have small children, eldery infirm, or pets that could be harmed by smoke inhalation????

Ah right I didn't realise it had changed so recently.

If there was anything illegal going on then yes the Fire Service would immediately call the police

"DH2R If you knew that an illegal activity had caused a fire, do you report it to the police?"

Not DH2R but a firefighter too. Yes we would absolutely have to report anything illegal or suspicious. (In our opinion) the whole house would have been searched too.

We also have a duty of care to report things like where we feel a child or adult might be at risk, abuse, terrorism etc. If there was real concern about the family it would have been reported.

And yes if there was any danger at all you would have been alerted. The smell though, to be fair, could have been coming through vents, extractors or chimneys and fireplaces. At floor level and it may well not have reached a smoke alarm before you woke up. Do you test yours regularly? The fire service will fit more for free. For you and your neighbours.

I know fire is scary but if there was any real danger at all you would have been evacuated by us. And like needasock says, we wouldn't have let the family go wandering off knocking on neighbours doors either after we were in attendance.

StrawberryTeaLeaf, we've had to buy and fit our own smoke alarms in all the places we've rented apart from one. Is it the LL's responsibility. Even when we rented from the council we had to buy our own smoke alarms.

Sorry that should have been a question mark after responsibility.

I believe so, Bath. I didn't actually ever look into that closely because we did it anyway. We rented out a flat and rented a house elsewhere and we just continued to maintain it. I didn't occur to me NOT to leave, supply, maintain smoke alarms (or fire blankets, window locks etc) TBH.

I'm a bit surprised that council tenancies don't have the highest safety regs going (not really my area, though, sorry).

They can't get their act together to tidy up their house but you expect them to knock on your door when their house us on fire?

Emergency services would have knocked on your door if you'd been in danger.

I think the OP has had s bit too much grief here, I think she was just trying to explain that her neighbours are a bit feckless, after being woken up by smoke from their fire which they didn't bother telling her about. I also have pain in the arse neighbours and If they had a fire I would be pissed off too. I would also be taking into account that there were previous situations where they didn't seem to give a damn about the way their actions will affect those around them.
There is also absolutely no reason for them to not have smoke alarms, if the landlord doesn't provide then they could get them for a few quid themselves, or call the firemen who provide (certainly in this area) free fire alarms and checking.
Sorry you have such bad neighbours.

My neighbours flat caught fire when I lived in the UK, I was woken by lights and sirens, not a person. It was rather scary but I figured the fire service would let me know if I was at any risk. I went outside and cheeked with the neighbours if anyone wanted to come inside in the warm and have a hot drink - one lady with a young child did for an hour or so until the person she'd arranged to stay with collected her I think. It is all a bit of a blur due to adrenaline and being the middle of the night. It sounds like the problem is much more the neighbours illegal activity than the fire!

YANBU. I hope everyone was OK.

let's get the law right. As of Oct 1st, smoke alarms in all rentals England/Wales. One on each storey. CO alarms in rentals where a solid fuel burner is fitted. Although I put one in mine which has a gas boiler as 'belt and braces'.

type of alarm not mandated.

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/464717/150929_SC_Explan_book_Annex_A_LandlordsTenants_REVISED.pdf

I too think this threads been unfair on the op, I understand where your coming from and from the backroubd info in assuming you're saying they're pretty shitty neighbours so that's why your oh doesn't want to speak to then & also why your even more angry - in regards to the issue you actually asked about I don't think YRBU at all - I was hugely fucked off why my scatty neighbours set by trampoline on fire! It was an accident and one of them was putting it out but it wouldn't of hurt the other to knock my door to warn me! and admit it before I randomly caught them mid fire
My other side however, set their kitchen alight and the little old lady called 999 then hammered hell out of my door because her kitchen is next to mine and although there wasn't smoke in my house and it was contained (pan on fire) she worried about my dog in my kitchen! I was grateful for the 1am wake up as I could move the dog and be prepared to move the kids at the first sign of smoke in the house and also make the poor love a cuppa and i would hope once my kids and creatures where out id warn my neighbours though I'm obviously better with fire than all of them as the only one to not have this happen!

You say they've got cats, the children would be in danger of trying to save the cats, so your neighbours had the shock to get over and see to the children/pets and each other (I've seen Mums in particular think they can go into the property to save toys etc).

I've seen a lot of house fires and it used to be that they spread through the loft, but nowadays it takes a while for a house to "burn down".

There isn't needed scary less smoke in next door than outside, but at least indoors you can put a damp cloth over your mouth (if your breathing is bad) and get a drink, access to medication.

I've been evacuated, in the 70/80/90's and I'd rather block my doors and wait for the fire brigade to tell me to get out, than stand in the street for upto an hour.

The only thing people should be concerned about is moving cars, so there is unrestricted access.

We have s lot of "crop" fires in Liverpool and the Fire Brigade are right on them, the residents aren't allowed to return to the house until they've had time to investigate.

It's the biggest cause of large house fires on Merseyside.

Sympathies Op this must have been terrifying

And my sister has impossible neighbours who leave everything a state and can't control their children and it had made her life a misery too, so you have my sympathies there as well xx

Gosh - if we were all safely out of our house and it was on fire then yes, waking my neighbors would be my next priority! YANBU. Can't believe some posters here have said otherwise. Hope they're not my neighbors.

Ideally they would have. But hard to act sensibly in a crisis sometimes.