Do you have a fire plan.

[CornishTiger]

Thinking about the absolutely awful news that has happened over the last few days it’s lead me to think about what we’d do in a fire.

We had discussed it when children were younger so we knew which of us would go to which bedroom and had a plan in mind.

We’ve moved since. Children have got older. We have just discussed it. Will make sure the children know what to do in event of a fire. Shout Fire rather than help. Keep low to ground etc.

Our smoke alarms actually sounded a couple of days ago and none of them had moved from rooms. Headphones on too! Activated I think by steam from bathroom.

It’s a scary thought but one we do need to consider. And check your smoke alarms. And any carbon monoxide detectors.

We moved house and I just I don’t think we have smoke alarms! 😱

last house we had wired smoke alarms and a co monitors. I need to sort this tomorrow!

THANK YOU! 🙏🏼

If we had a fire in the house and we couldn’t exit via the stairs our planned escape route is through the window in one of the spare rooms and onto the garage roof and from there drop,or jump to the ground.
We always close all doors overnight and have linked smoke alarms upstairs and downstairs and a heat detector in the kitchen.When DC were younger we regularly discussed this with them and talked about how important it was not to hide if they were trapped in their room and to use pillows or a duvet to block any gap under the door.We also have fire extinguishers in the house.

An awful tradegy.

I have two dcs aged 6 and 10. They've been told to try and get out of the front door but if they can't they have to jump from their bedroom windows but I think unless me and DP make them they'll just hide.

We had new windows and external doors installed a couple of years ago. We spent time teaching the dcs how to open them - i'm going to check tomorrow that they can still do it.

The company we bought the windows and doors from were quite insistent that we had thumb locks for the external doors in case of a fire/someone has an accident alone - we don't need to find or struggle with keys. They also spent a lot of time explaining how strong the windows were and that we shouldn't need to lock them. They said there's a risk we'll forget to unlock and can't get out.

We always close internal doors even though we have cats and have done for 15 years (really confused about this! )

Please remember that children are very unlikely to wake up if smoke alarm goes off.
They are liable to just sleep right on ggroigh it.

We suffered a house fire over Christmas. Electrical fault. Not something we could have prevented.

It was day time and DC (teens) were home alone. They were brilliant, did everything they could to save themselves and fire engines arrived in minutes.

It was so fast. The smoke was thick and upstairs was apparently not visible when the firefighters arrived. I dread to think what would have happened if it had been night time. Would we have woken up? We have working fire alarms which definitely saved my DC but will be adding more - I didn’t realise some alarms speak! We will definitely install some as my DH is a deep sleeper.

I would just add to the excellent advice here: if you see smoke coming from another room or cupboard, do not open the door. Leave by other means or else you’ll risk back draft and making the fire stronger. I hadn’t told my DC this but they knew luckily.

You can get 10 year life sealed smoke alarms now, we generally use them where wiring would mean ripping up floors - they have a battery that is built in and good for 10 years.

Get your electrical installation tested every 5 years, its what we in the trade advise and is the specification in the wiring regs - its not mandatory for private houses, but highly recommended.

It’s to do with overloading the socket. Plus the extensions themselves can overheat, I believe.

https://www.dwfire.org.uk/safety/safety-at-home/causes-of-fires/electrical-safety/

How to avoid electrical fires

• Make sure an electrical appliance has a British or European safety mark when you buy it.
• Keep electrical leads and appliances away from water.
• Remember – one plug per socket. If you need more plugs than there are sockets, use a multi-socket extension lead with integral fuse, never a block adaptor. To avoid overloading, please use the plug capacity calculator below to see what is safe.
• NEVER ‘daisy-chain’ extension leads or adapters – daisy-chaining involves plugging one extension into another in order to reach further or plug more appliances in, and creates a huge fire risk.
• Unplug appliances at night or when you’re not using them to reduce the risk of fire – unless they are designed to be left on all the time (for example, a fridge or freezer).
• Keep electrical appliances clean and in good working order.

We went on a caravan holiday last summer. Alarm went off in the middle of the night (I think it was a CO2 one rather than fire, but still). OH didn’t hear a thing so didn’t wake up until I shook him awake and we went to investigate. DD didn’t leave her room. She did wake up, but decided that if it was something serious I’d go and get her . Basically, if I’m not there, they’re both dying.

It’s heartbreaking. We need to have a plan and chat with our little one. At school I remember the fire brigade telling us if you had to exit a window to lower yourself (dangle) as far as you could before you drop and roll to reduce the height of the jump / fall. I’ve occasionally thought if I needed to get my little one out quickly I’d put them in the duvet and lower that out of the window as far as I could before I dropped it. I pray I never have to experience it though. My thoughts have been with the family and friends of the brimscombe tragedy since I read about it

I made the mistake of watching the Station Nightclub Fire video (absolutely devastating fire in a nightclub that killed a lot of people) and it made me very fire conscious. It's one of my biggest fears.

I also have smoke detectors in the bedrooms. I did a fire warden course a couple months back and it raised a good point about teenagers and tech tending to be on the bed.

we do have a fire plan and we go over it regularly, we also have an intruder plan which isn’t as detailed but we know what room we are going in (easiest room to barricade)

Helpful for those who don’t know of course, ours was done in 2021! It’s only really a stamp in time - no guarantee they won’t go wrong the next day @DeftWasp

Just to add, fireproof box for all your important documents. We have a safe that’s rated for 24hrs or something silly like that, it’s that long ago since we bought it. But the point is important documents that will take months to replace are kept in there.

also cloud storage for all your insurance documents etc so you don’t have that panic about who you are with and hunting through emailed

As someone who lives with a firefighter nothing charger wise left plugged in over night, knowing how many stairs there are to go down (it’s not like the movies, all you can see is black so any practices with your lights off) the door key always left in the same place (slightly overhangs shelf so is easy to find via touch) also to add fire alarm at the bottom and top of the stairs x

We used to live in a house that had bedrooms with narrow window openings across the top and then the rest was a large sealed double glazed window. Each room had an emergency glass hammer to ensure they could be broken plus a plan on how to get to the ground as safely as possible.

This thread is a reminder for me to test my alarms, we've got them in every room including each bedroom because dd's sleep with their doors closed.

We live in a dormer bungalow so we can all get out of our bedroom windows and walk down the roof.

It's unimaginable what has happened to that poor family.

No but now planning to

You're advised not to tackle a fire/ not to have a fire extinguisher. We have a fire blanket to cover someone but if there is an ACTUAL fire, you get out quickly and safely, you dont stay inside trying to tackle it.

We have talked about it. We always close all doors downstairs at night and don’t run appliances like washing machine dishwasher tumble dryer.
The kids know to get out and if they can’t we have escape windows in every room, they are to climb out and try to dangle down and let themselves fall rather than jump. Put the dogs inside the duvet cover and drop them down they sleep upstairs in our bedrooms anyway.
We have interlinked hardwired smoke and heat alarms.

We have one as also foster carers.
We have roles as adults and what children need to do. We have 2 pathways out of the house (front /back door) depending where the fire is. We also have 2 fire escape windows upstairs. If needed we can go into the attic bedroom as regulations require that to have extra safety 'built in', fire doors, fire retardant celings on the rooms below, which will slow down the progress of the fire and give longer time to be rescued.

If your children have a high sleeper they should have a smoke alarm in their room, due to smoke rising and children being affected more quickly by smoke inhalation .

Edited as duplicated post.

I’m paranoid that keys would melt in a fire so we couldn’t get out. Is that something that could happen or am I being silly?

Do you need keys to get out ? Imagine putting a key in a lock in the dark and smoke. Maybe get your locks changed so you just turn a latch.

Yes we've got plans. I've taught the kids all the obvious stuff eg stay low, touch the door, block under the door if you cant get out etc.

Its better to break bones jumping out of a window than die of smoke inhalation and so on.

All the prevention and safety stuff re plugs, cables, cooking, candles etc.

We've got a fire blanket in the kitchen obviously but also a couple of fire extinguishers in the house, which reminds me, got to check the expiration date on them. Got smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detector.