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?

@HunkyDory NZ, South Island. We get a few rattles!

My point was risk assess and then act accordingly. So we leave our upstairs doors open due to quake concerns. Downstairs is open plan so can't really shut doors there (have sliding doors that close the kitchen / dining / living area off from the hall) but do make sure garage & laundry doors are closed. We also have smoke & heat alarms on every floor, plus fire extinguishers in kitchens & in upstairs hall, rope ladder under bed and one upstairs window (in our bathroom) that opens wide enough to climb out through.

OP is probably more at risk of fires than earthquakes so maybe less relevant but may have other reasons for needing bedroom doors open. Therefore mitigate fire risk as best you can (closing all downstairs doors, working smoke & heat alarms, make sure you have a decent escape route no matter where the fire breaks out & agree on a meeting place - ours is our mailbox at the top of the driveway). Most importantly, run the occasional drill with kids to make sure they know how to get out from any part of the house. Like turtle drills for earthquakes.

How many people unplug all their appliances before bed? We don't which worries me but DH is completely blasé about it and moans about waiting for the router/virgin box etc to boot up in a morning. I've tried explaining the risks but he always says 'oh no one unplugs everything' so would love to be able to tell him that actually people do.

hiding we leave about 5 items plugged in: virgin box and router, fridge, freezer and landline phones. Everything else we unplug after use. It's 5 years since our fire now. I do occasionally forget to unplug stuff but we've just got in the habit of it. Once bitten, twice shy.

PS. I'd hate to lose everything we have in a fire of course. My dragon collection is pretty irreplaceable now.

But - it's all just Stuff. It's insured, the house can be rebuilt, clothes and possessions can be re purchased. My dragons may not be replaceable but they are just ornaments which will end up who knows where when I die.

Important documents & pictures are backed up electronically. I'd rather have to replace things or live without them than lose my children because they were trapped behind doors.

yeah as a firefighter I'm more likely to be killed by fire so I see your point. as I say it's only advice, it's not the law but there are so many wee things that can help.

I shut doors, unplug virtually everything, make sure escape are clear and we have connected fire alarms... DH laughs at me but years ago we had the fire service round and their leaflet basically said to do everything I do. I'm a bit obsessed by the possibility of a fire...

Open plan downstairs here but we close the only door to the kitchen. The stairs don't have a door at the bottom. The bedroom doors don't close properly. Id shut them if they did.

The risk of your house catching fire is probably very small the consequences of it doing so if your internal doors are open is huge. Why wouldn't you take a very simple step to minimise that consequence unless there was a very good reason for doing so

Well, I consider the cat a very good reason. We're fairly open plan, anyway. I also note that lots of people think that all electric goods are at constant risk of bursting into spontaneous flame - apart from the fridge, of course, which is magically immune from this risk.

We had a fire risk assessment two weeks ago, as we have oxygen in the house now. The advice was:

Have smoke alarms fitted, preferably mains, and always remember to test them regularly.

Always shut internal doors, particularly the kitchen door (and have a fire door fitted if possible).

Switch appliances off at the wall at night.

Never run washing machines, tumble dryers, or dishwashers whilst asleep or out of the house.

Don't have a fire extinguisher, if there's a fire, get out. Don't stop to rescue pets, unless they are with you and it won't cost time.

Sensible, basic information that we can alll follow. I was also advised to use my Lifeline to call the fire brigade as they would hear the alarms and automatically dispatch.

We have the doors to the kitchen and lounge closed as our hall and bedrooms are the only rooms heated by a heat pump. We got around the cat by installing an internal cat door. She can come and go as she pleases and we can keep fires stalled and the heat where we want it.

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