More specifically, could you get everyone out of the house, blindfolded, in under a minute?

[Nimbostratus100]

Following on from the emergency thread... (yes I have let the police in without the washing up being done in the past - no - no one cared...)

If your house was filled with smoke, and you couldn't see or breathe in - could you get out?

This mostly means, can you put your hand on the door or window key right now, with your eyes closed, and does everyone know where to meet up?

( lives have been lost when everyone is safely out, but someone is missing and a relative returns to a burning building to look for them, not knowing they were already safe)

I think this is important - if you have to get out of the house blind, before you next breathe in - do you have an emergency key in a fixed place you can put your hand straight on now without thinking?

So your strategy is to leave your most valuable things where thieves can collect them as soon as they are in your house?!

Have to say, that’s not the advice the police gave either!

Each to their own, but no thanks. I’m not leaving my credit cards/ money/ car keys or anything of value where a thief can easily take it.

You must be talking to different police, then.

I work in the criminal justice sector. With people who you absolutely want to get in and out of your house ASAP.

I am the valuable thing in my house, thank you very much. The rest is covered by insurance.

Seems like good advice tbh. Maybe not family jewellery but yeah leave the car keys visible once they've broken in.

All of our external doors don't require a key to get outside.

I am the valuable thing in my house, thank you very much. The rest is covered by insurance.

Agree with this totally, well me and ds.
My strategy for burglars would be to barricade us into a room, phone the police and let them take what they want.

No way am I getting into a scrap with a burglar over my handbag, phone or car keys 😬

Yes, that is my strategy.

I would rather they broke in, saw the opportunity to take my keys and purse and fuck right off again.

All those things can be replaced. It’s a ballache if they use the cards, but it can be sorted out. I’d rather that than potentially be injured or traumatised.

Ones like these.

https://fireprotectiononline.co.uk/4.5m-fire-escape-ladder?attributevalues%5B1291%5D=11331&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9vf1z8666QIVwIxoCR02TACWEAQYAiABEgIR-PDBwE

They are such a simple but potentially life saving idea. And not expensive at all. Really recommend them for everyone.

Our front door has a knob on the inside which unlocks/locks it.. not sure what it's called. Keys are left in all other doors.

It's not even much of a ballache these days.

We moved house, and my husband's credit card was cloned around the same time. Due to huge transactions going in and out, he somehow didn't notice he was £600 down on his credit card til months later.

Bank didn't even bat an eyelid at the delay, refunded and all good.

We have a small cash stash in our house, but a thief is very unlikely to hang around to find it if they can bugger off with the car, purse and TV in less than five minutes.

Well maybe I’m being naive but since I can’t even cook a pancake in my house without my smoke alarm going off not sure it would get to the point I physically couldn’t see or breathe to get out unless it was a malicious fire?
we have smoke alarms in every bedroom, hallway, kitchen etc!

Nope. House is too big, it seems to take forever to get from my office to the front door for a parcel. Route is clear though. Keys are on hook next to door. Same for back door. If we could get down the stairs it would be ok to get to front door as they're very close, so alternative downstairs exits not relevant at night. If stairs blocked we'd have to get out the window and slither down porch roof which would be nasty.

We have fully interlinked fire and heat alarms and the kitchen is well away from the front door.

It's the law here now to have fire alarms on each floor, I need to look at my locks though. Am now looking at my home as a trap 😱

Re the car thing, my last three cars came with small hammers next to the drivers seat, everyone I know has them. We are in NL though so much more aware of water risks as many roads are alongside canals, especially where I live. They are emergency hammers, not great big carpentry type things.

People need a key to get out of their house? We would just open the door. I could get out in about 20 seconds.

Just did an experiment.

I went from lying on my bed, to walking to each of DDs rooms, to walking downstairs, to unlocking front door.

Obviously no smoke etc...
26 seconds.

Well this thread has scared the shit out of me. I’ve got a 1 and 3 year old and often alone. If we’re upstairs we have to get down the stairs to get out. There’s 3 exits but if a fire blocked the stairs we’d be fucked.

No.
The "escape windows" to our bedroom are so narrow that my fat arse would get stuck.
I'd still have to go downstairs to get my cats, so I guess the windows don't matter.
The front door keys are kept in 2 specific places that I could fumble my way to if I had to.

@GoodChat they're not standard diy hammers, you know, they're specifically designed to break glass in the case of emergency. They are perfectly safe to keep in the car and, no, relying on someone to be able to twist in a sinking car to attempt to remove the headrest is appalling advice.

I have just looked this up and they are circa £7 from Halfords.

I am going to buy two.

Years ago my DS1 accidentally locked himself in the car. Primarily because I stupidly gave him the car keys to keep him occupied while i strapped him in to his car seat then shut the door and walked around to the drivers side.

He has learning difficulties but managed to unstrap himself from the car seat, undo his nappy, crap all over the seats and decant all the dvds from their covers. All on a fairly warm day and while i and a lovely guy from the gym tried to break the windows with a regular sort of hammer. I discovered then how hard it is to break a car window.

Since then I have been a bit paranoid about ending up somewhere stuck in the car.

A rescue me will give me peace of mind!!

Yes, they're great.

Here's a link: amzn.eu/d/4J7cfhF

Front door is a thumb lock, so no key needed. But there is a key for it on top of the alarm box right next to it.

Back door, the keys live in the lock, same for all the window locks.

This thread has just made realise that our house has no windows we could viably escape from.

It’s a new build so that strikes me as odd. Even though we could get a couple of the upstairs windows open wide enough, only DD and even at a push, me could fit. DH definitely wouldn’t. Then there’s also a two story drop onto concrete. So if the stairs were blocked that’s it really isn’t it.

Those of you with composite/UPVC doors that have "thumb turn" locks with eurocylinders on the inside...have you checked that you're insurance company is happy with that?
I did some research (about 10y ago) and Aviva and Churchill - we were switching insurer around the time the doors were being installed - would only accept key operated multi point locks.
I changed all our external locks to ABS Avocet and they're keyed alike - 1 key will open any door. It cost a few quid, but they're anti bump and anti snap, so pretty secure.

Slight derail - but I think there's more chance of my home being burgled than a random fire starting.

if it's a newbuild it has to have escape windows - the building regs changed in 2002.

I've cut and paste it below:

Means of escape
When replacing any window, the opening should be sized to provide at least the same potential for escape as the window it replaces. If the original window that is being replaced was larger than necessary for the purpose of escape, then the new window opening could be reduced down to the minimum as specified in the criteria below.
The means of escape should be considered for any new window installed to an extension or existing dwelling. If an escape window is required then criteria set out below should be followed. It is also generally good practice to replace any window on the first floor that is not used as an escape window with an escape window.
See below for the general criteria for egress windows:
Width and Height - Either of these are not to be any less than 450mm
Clear Openable Area - No less than 0.33m²
Cill height - The bottom of the openable area should be no more than 1100mm above the floor area.
Only one window per room is generally required.

@pussycatinfluffyslippers

Thank you, I’m off to grab a tape measure! All of our windows are split windows if you see what I mean? They don’t open outwards from the bottom, they all only open a smaller window from two thirds of the way up.

So even looking at those escape ladders, it would have to hook onto glass window, if they even work like that? Because ours doesn’t open anywhere near the windowsill.

Just checked, there’s no openable window upstairs less than 1.4m from the floor.