To ask for house fire advice for young children?

[Acunningruse]

The news this morning that 4 young children have died in a house fire is heartbreaking.

It has also made me aware that mine (age 2 and 6) would have absolutely no idea what to do in a fire, which is terrifying.

I have googled but a lot of advice seems to be from American sites or more towards preventing fires (which obviously is important!) than what to do in the event of a fire.

Does anyone know what is the best way to teach very young children what to do in the event of a fire? Preferably without scaring the bejesus out of them as the 6 year old suffers from anxiety.

Thanks

Give your local fire station a ring - they'll be happy to advise (and might pop round when not busy )

This page looks great www.london-fire.gov.uk/safety/the-home/

I don't know, but there might be advice somewhere like from the London fire brigade.
I think realistically if you're house was on fire (and it's a horrific thing to even think about) your children would rely on you to get them out safely at this young age. It might be worth making a plan with your partner? Ie knowing who will get which child, which room is safest to meet up in, how you would exit the house etc.

No practical advice sorry, but I'd say the most important thing is to teach them not to hide.
It seems many young children when they're found are under the bed, in the wardrobe etc.

Have a working smoke alarm. Check it regularly (I have a 3 monthly reminder on my phone, but this might be excessive). Dying in a house fire is (thankfully) very rare in the UK and when it does happen it tends to be in houses without working smoke alarms.

Also, shut the downstairs doors. It will limit the spread of smoke and fire (even if they aren't fire doors it offers some protection) which buys you additional time to get out.

Finally, make sure you can unlock your front door easily without having to search for keys. I keep a spare set of keys in my bedroom for this purpose.

There is new research that children respond best to a parent voice alerting them to wake up, rather than a smoke alarm that they often slept through. A tape recorded voice of the parent saying " Wake up Wake up you need to go downstairs" or something similar. Whatever system you used you need to tell children what they should do if an alarm goes off

I think logical advice would be that it's on you to get them out at that age. We have fire plan for when we are all in bed. Me and DH came up with a plan after a fire broke out in a house near us a destroyed the house. All occupants were fine as they had a plan in place in case it ever happened.
You need to plan an escape route from upstairs windows etc. If you and DH have a plan in place and know who is doing what with each child then all fingers crossed you will be fine.
Such a sad story to read.

Sorry, on the teaching thing - they will do fire drills in school so the older one should have an idea of what to do. They should know if the alarm goes off an adult will tell them to leave and they must follow instructions immediately and quietly. At that age they would realistically need you to get them out.

I was told to try and wake my mum if possible otherwise grab my siblings and get out or if couldn't get downstairs get a mattress out of the window and throw the middle child onto it and then jump onto it with the baby. Terrifying but I used to make a plan of action whilst I was bored just in case because my mum put so much importance on it. Never found out if I'd have actually had to do it that way, but when I was 10 some toast caught alight thanks to one of my siblings and I was calm enough to grab the tray it was on and take it into the bathroom (next door) and spray it with the shower.

To add - I was 4/just turned 5 when I was told this by the way

We have always had a fire plan and explained it to the dc.

We taught them about getting out if you c

We have a fire ladder in the cupboard.

Sorry accidentally posted.

The fire ladder combined with hardwired smoke alarms gives me most peace of mind.

Agree with your DH what your plan is and practice it.

Have you heard of the Nest fire alarms? We have two at home, one upstairs and one downstairs and they're great! They have an alarm accompanied by a woman's voice purposefully for children as they understand that better.

When smoke has been detected in my house "she" says "Smoke has been detected, the alarm may sound". If the smoke doesn't clear the box turns red, the alarm sounds and she says something along the lines of "There's smoke downstairs, move to safety" (I can't remember exactly what she says as I'm usually busy wafting a tea towel in front of it or jumping up to hit the button to confirm the area is safe) Once the smoke clears the alarm will make a nice sounding "bong" and shine green.

Yet to experience it and hope I never do but if a fire is detected the same happens again but a lot more alarming(??) She will tell you to evacuate, to leave the area, move to safety and not return etc.

Also, the alarm tests it's own batteries every week, runs a more thorough test every month, tells you if the batteries are low/alarm is faulty. They also link to your phone and send alerts to it if smoke is detected/if your alarm is sounding/if smoke has cleared/batteries low etc.

woah lengthy post, I sound like a Nest saleswoman, I promise you I'm not

The app keeps a history of all tests as well as every time smoke was detected/the alarm sounded etc (hopefully my pictures have attached!)

One thing that has always stuck with me is advice to test heat of a door with the back of your hand, not the palm. If it is very hot then if you burn the back of your hand you can still use it. I also keep a 5 litre bottle of water in the bedroom to wet clothes or sheets to shove around the door to reduce smoke coming in.

And thank you to WeirdAndPissedOff for hiding advice, I will be teaching that.

I remember being taught not to hide when I was a Brownie, so not much older. In fact, might be worth looking up the old Brownie fire safety badge!

DH is a fireman.

They still do home fire safety checks (although they call them something else now) and they still give talks in schools.

Call in, literally in person, to your local permananently manned station. They will arrange a visit, whilst your kids get to jump all over the appliance.

We taught DC never to hide, to try and get downstairs and out of the living room window and if that wasn't possible which bedroom had the easiest/safest way out. If it wasn't possible to get out we taught them to open the window of the room they were in and shout help there's a fire as loudly and for as long as possible.

When they were older, 5 and 8, we actually practised how to get out the easiest window and down to the ground (very easy as the room below had a bay window and a lamppost almost touching it. They loved it!

When our smoke alarm went off in the middle of the night (field fire and lots of smoke came in the open windows) they slept through it and we had to carry them out cos we didn't know what the problem was. Hey ho!

I thought most parents would tell their children what to do in a fire. Show them how to get out, show them how to open a window, what to do if the fire is coming under their door etc.

My son knows to climb out of a window rather than head for the front door which might be locked or go for the back door which locks in a different way. He knows which neighbors to run to as 2 are disabled so would not get to front door quickly.

My son would never wake up when the fire alarm went off, the ones we have now are much, much louder no-one could sleep through these.

The fire brigade will have someone dedicated to home fire safety and will come out to your home.

There was a similar thread recently - good advice here too: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3483107-to-ask-about-basic-fire-safety-in-the-house

The fire brigade came and did a visit to our house, we looked up local number for fire station and they brought the engine with them which thrilled my daughter to watch it through our window.

They fitted two really good quality smoke alarms for free, and told us to always close doors at night or when out, and also never to leave our washing machine or dishwasher on overnight or when we were out.

We have locks on all windows and doors with keys out of reach from our young children so have just told our eldest to run to our bedroom if she hears the alarm or sees smoke to wake us up.

Depends on the layout of your house, but an idea of where they should go is important - when I was growing up my parents said either straight downstairs, or if that wasn't possible, into the bathroom, climb onto the loo, out of the window onto the garage roof.

Sounds like a silly question, but do they know you have a fire alarm, what it sounds like, what it means etc. I assume your 6 year old has fire drills at school, but would they recognise that that is what it was if it went off at home, in the middle of the night? Would they link it to the fire drills at school and know to leave, or would they just be confused? If they have drills at school, you can use a conversation about them to do your own little "fire drill", hopefully it wont cause too much anxiety if they're ok with the school ones.

www.amazon.ca/No-Dragons-Tea-Fire-Safety/dp/1550745719
The little rhyme is great, see if you can pick one up.
Make a plan and practice it.
If climbing out a window is needed, again practice it. Randomly ask where your safe waiting spot is after you’ve chosen one.

I'd say the most important thing is to have smoke alarms in every bedroom as well as on the landing.

The dc may well sleep through them, but you won't and you'll have more time to get to the dc.