Shut doors at night - or not?

[Thisisnotreallymyname]

I'm often the last one to go up the stairs at night, so as I'm going I close all the doors behind me, especially the dining room door which leads straight into the hall.
The reason for this is , I reckon that if there were a fire at night in the kitchen or dining room, then the fact that the door leading into the hall is closed would give vital minutes for us to escape etc.
The is a smoke alarm in the dining room and also one on the landing.
OH - I recently discovered, leaves all the internal doors downstairs open and said that it would make no difference as if there was a fire, we would be more likely to hear the smoke alarm in the dining room going off , if the door was open.
I totally disagree, I think leaving it open gives quicker access to the fire to get into the hall and upstairs , and it's better to keep the dining room door closed as it would contain it more, and anyway I reckon the smoke alarm would wake me up even if door was closed, plus there's the extra one on the landing.
We can't agree - what do you think?

I think you are right

DH used to be a retained Fire Fighter, you're right.

You are right. I don't have a kitchen door at the moment (long story - looking for a decent sliding door!) & a friend who works for the fire service bollocked me about it. All doors should be closed at night.

You're right, you might hear the smoke alarm but you'd wake up to the hallway full of smoke and not possibly be able to see, or breathe well. That's if the fire hasn't already spread.

You're right.
There was a program on, about 10 years ago, where they set fire to a Christmas tree and filmed it. Upstairs, they'd left one bedroom door open and one shut.
After the fire brigade had been, they showed the interior of the house. The room with the open door was destroyed, everything burnt black. The room with the closed door had a little bit of smoke damage, and nothing else.

I recently had a smoke alarm fitted by the fire service. They told me to make sure my lounge/kitchen door was shut at night as that's where most fires break out and it does give you vital extra time to get out

Shit, I had better start remembering to do this, thanks for the reminder!

Closed doors save lives.

Buy a second smoke detector and put it at the bottom of the stairs.

I did not know this about doors and fires. Thanks for highlighting it!

All our doors are fire doors which close automatically therefore you are right. If your smoke detector is working it will give you enough time to escape without needing to have the full blast of smoke hitting it. Our alarms are interlinked so if one goes of they all go off at once.

You are right and you'll hear a fire alarm through closed doors anyway.

What you do is standard fire service advice. It could literally be the difference between life or death.

If your OH doesn't believe you tell him to speak with a fire fighter. They're happy to talk about fire safety, they'd rather do that than have to rescue someone. Prevention is better than a fire.

You are right.
Buy another smoke alarm and always shut the doors.

I'm a firefighter, we give this as standard advice. You are definitely right!

Thanks all !
I've shown this to DH and he has accepted that I was right 👍,
@Fluffyears - I love the idea of interconnected alarms, will look into that!

You're right. Used to have the same argument with my ex. He 'couldn't sleep' if the doors downstairs were closed because it was 'dangerous' and I was 'stupid'

There was a public service advert for this years ago where a terribly 70s couple pranced around their house closing doors switching off appliances and singing about their fire safety bedtime routine! You are right. Your dh is wrong

Bedtime routine....

Show him this...

m.youtube.com/watch?v=AT-Wga_7wvI

Blast of nostalgia there!

Yes you are right, you should shut doors behind you. (We have an open plan downstairs so have no doors to shut)

I have always left my downstairs doors open thinking that would help me hear a smoke alarm earlier but can see this is totally wrong. Thank you for highlighting - doors will be shut from now on

Shit. I never close my living room door, my kitchen doesn't even have a door, the kids room is always open and inch, and there is a fire door up to my room, but there's a hole next to it (crap loft conversion)

Smoke alarms in most rooms though..

How bad is this, should I get the fire service round to inspect/bollocks me?

Downstairs doors closed but bedroom doors open.

We are more likely to be in an earthquake than a fire and if the frames warp with the doors closed we would be unable to get the boys out of their rooms. It's also why there is an axe under the bed (for chopping through doors / walls to get to them).

I don't think any of us bother about the state of the doors. There's a smoke alarm upstairs and downstairs. We turn the lights off but that's it.

Bedroom doors closed for privacy reasons.

You're right. DH and I watched (after she'd calmly walked out of the front door) our NDNs house go from a gentle glowing in the sitting room window to flames bursting out of the roof. It took SEVEN minutes for that to happen. And she was someone who always shut all of her internal doors. If she hadn't been she wouldn't have got down the stairs, past the sitting room and out of the front door alive.