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.

Tragic. Absolutely heartbreaking. We have several floors and I leave lamps switched on on the landings. I think I’ll turn these off at bedtime going fwd. We have two staircases to the first floor, one from the back of the house and one from the front. I will also close the doors on these going forward. We all sleep on the top floor. We could escape from the bathroom window onto a roof below but I will order a hammer for my children’s rooms so they can also escape that way. I have left my tree lights on for days! My complacency is shocking.

*remember, glass windows need to be broken in the corner.

I saw a link to her Instagram. She looked like a wonderful, creative person. I was hoping they didn’t have any pets but it looks like they had a Hungarian Vizsla too. The last photo she took on her Instagram was of a magpie. Bless them all.

www.instagram.com/nu_shearman?igsh=ZDhzOHJ3NW0xcjhw

I know what you mean about thumb-locks from the ones you see on public lavatory cubicle doors meaning they can be locked from the inside by the user but opened from the outside with a coin (?) in an emergency. But please would you explain how you can have those thumb-turn locks on external house doors without it meaning that an intruder could open them? Or is it that there are external door versions of thumb locks that cannot be unlocked from the outside except with a very secure sort of key?

You can get thumb locks for external doors. They unlock from the inside using a thumb-lock, but from the outside using a key.

Shout Fire rather than help.

in your own house, what difference does it make? If I hear my child shouting, even worst during middle of the night, I jump!

The shout ‘fire’ not ‘help’ is usually for when you open the window but I’m guessing if you have a child who cries out dramatically in the night/day for small things saying ‘fire’ would make you think it wasn’t them being dramatic and make you move quicker and respond to fire plan rather than huffing and puffing out of bed to see if they are crying because their duvet has fallen off the bed or they think they have seen a scary monster in their room

Also if someone shouts ‘fire’ you shouldn’t automatically open your bedroom door but check it isn’t warm before opening it. If you are on different floors the fire could be on your floor not the child’s. If they shouted ‘help’ you would open the door without thinking

Inside is just a fob we turn but from the outside, to get in, you need a key.

If the indoor lock is key operated, and the key is left in the lock, someone outside using a key cannot open the door.

Our fire alarm went off a few months ago in the middle of the night (it was one of the ones that yelled “fire fire” in between beeps - or “carbon monoxide” if it was going off for that reason). My 6 yr old woke up, but decided to just… stay in bed and do nothing. So we had to talk to her about that decision!

(There was no actual fire, it was a faulty alarm that has now been replaced)

The replies here are eye-opening! My fire plan was limited to having smoke detectors. I never think to unplug things at night, usually scedhule the drier to have the cheaper electric hours, and never close doors.

With two small DC and a rather high second storey (the garden kind of dips under the bedroom windows), what's the best investment towards fire safety initially? I can't afford to buy ladders + blankets + extinguisher in one month.

How do you navigate ladders with two children you'd need to hold & one adult? Is it better to have a length of rope to dangle them?

I know in theory you should sleep with closed door, but I never shut my door.

I never switch off the fridge at night either. You can't be risk free anyway

Yes.

we had a family die near here a few years ago from Xmas lights catching fire. I’ve also had a friend die in a fire from a phone charger. So it’s something I’m aware of.

branded chargers only. Would never run a dishwasher, etc at night.

test the smoke alarms every time the clocks change, then you know it’s done twice a year.

all our upstairs windows are tilt and turn so fully open inwards. Dd actually has a flat roof to get down to just below her window so the fire plan is to get to DD’s room and out there if able. If not then out any window.

we did actually have a bad fire here earlier this year but thankfully just outbuildings, but how fast a fire can spread is scary. And how long it takes a fire engine to get you is even more scary. I can see a fire station from my house but it took nearly 30 mins for a fire engine to arrive. The local one couldn’t come.

Roughly, yes. I always have one in my head wherever I live.

I worked in an office once, which had the absurd plan that we scaled down a fire ladder out onto the road into the business park. They wouldn't test the ladder because it would then be invalidated, and the idea that the moron whose idea it was would get it right first time in an emergency was laughable.

My plan was always to climb out onto the porch and hang and drop the last few feet into the car park. I'd then shift my car under the porch for others to follow. Since we mostly worked in the same room, it seemed a lot more sensible than "navigate to the back room, assemble the ladder, then drop onto a road".

Also no matter what hotel we stay in we check out the fire escape, will literally walk to it from our room to see where it is, how the door opens, etc.

Yes you can get ones with just a key hole on the outside.

I used to live in a house share and the owner was a very fire conscious woman. All the bedrooms doors were fire doors with those kind of locks - just a thumb lock on the inside but keyhole on the outside. They were obviously internal doors but you can get external doors like that as well.

Our escape route for upstairs is from the kids bedroom down onto a storage box that my very tall husband could reach if he lowered himself down.

We also keep all of the doors closed when we go to bed.

I was thinking about this morning, after reading the news about that poor family who died on boxing day.

We live in a bungalow and every room has either a door to outside, or a window that opens up wide enough to get out. That said I am going to run through with dc in the event of a fire they just get themselves out and not to worry about anyone else, and to raise the alarm for help, and get to as far away from the fire as possible. One thing I really need dh to do it put our fire alarms up. We have them in the house, but not up, which we really need to prioritise.

I think most people die by smoke inhalation well before the fire gets to them, so closing doors gives you a greater chance of survival. Closing doors is easy and manageable but switching off a fridge is not realistic.

Yes, fortunately we have access to outside from every room including bedrooms,even our conservatory roof is safe to walk across if necessary. We used to go through it with DS when he was little.

This thread is great and a real reminder for lots of us - thankyou. I have ordered some glass hammers to put in bedrooms, we have really old windows but ours and the second bedroom can be opened to get out - they are so old the locks don’t work so always able to be opened quickly. My baby’s room windows don’t open so I’ll put the hammer in there.
My safety conscious parent always put a window key for that room behind the door on a little nail - also the front and back doors too. Means you can find keys in seconds if you need to. Once we replace our windows (a 2026 job!) we will do this.

If you have smoke alarms in every room and level your chances of getting out in more than enough time as huge.
Don't just have a couple of smoke alarms in the hall and landing.

We used to do drills when our dc were small, but haven't since they all reached adulthood.

We actually had a fire 8 years ago which destroyed the kitchen and caused damage through most of the rest of downstairs. Things we have that helped save dh/the building:
Fire door on the kitchen contained the fire to that room until the fire brigade arrived.
Kitchen to the side of the main house with a flat roof meant no-one sleeping above it. If this isn't possible (most houses), I would now only use any rooms above a kitchen as a day space/ guest room to avoid people being asleep in it.

Working smoke alarms throughout the house that are checked weekly and batteries changed annually- we used to do this over Christmas figuring we wouldn't miss the extra expense. I the end the dog woke dh before the alarms went off due to our fire door working so well.

Keep all doors closed especially at night.

Keep keys in the door locks for an easy escape. Dh worked nights so although he was home asleep and the rest of us out, this made his escape easier. It's not easy to see in smoke.

Make sure escape plans include pets. Children need to know that they can't hunt through the house for the cat. We used the cat carrier as our cats bed so we could just zip it up if needed. Stress test these, wake the kids at night occasionally. Practice.

Park sensibly so fire engines can get through, and if you see one on lights, get out of the way. Our fire fighters lost valuable minutes because cars wouldn't let them through bottlenecks. They were really frustrated. We live a few miles away from this tragedy and those roads are so narrow I can imagine it wasn't easy for the rescuers to get there.

We recently arrived at a hotel which didn't meet fire safety regulations- we left. Assess the risk when you are away from home.

A good insurance policy to deal with the aftermath.

Ds1 has recently bought his first home. One of his first purchases will be a properly fitted fire door for the kitchen.

@Housefiresarentfunthat sounds very thorough, but I’m wondering why you don’t have a fire alarm in the kitchen - which I’ve assumed from your comment about the alarm not going off due to the kitchen fire doors? Is that just because cooking sets it off too much?

Discussing what to do with pets is important. When we had our fire and it looked like the house was going to go up as well as the outbuildings Dd was home alone (she’s an adult). She was getting all the animals out which obviously I’m pleased about but on the other hand if it had been worse she could have died while searching for a cat! The cats hid and she was struggling to find them/get them. They’re house cats so she felt she couldn’t just sling them out when she did get them. She’d got one cat and a dog in her car when I turned up and was running about with another cat in her arms in the front garden. Her plan had been to get them all in and drive away from the house which I thought was sensible. I love my animals but i wouldn’t want Dd to risk her life for them.

https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/safety/the-home/smoke-alarms-and-heat-alarms/

Heat alarms weren't on the list when we bought our house, and we haven't updated our setup as the dc grew. What we had seemed sufficient.
They also weren't suggested by our fire brigade after our fire (they did a check of what we had).

I think i will look into investing in one now that I know about them though.

They don't recommend smoke alarms in kitchens though, I think because they can make people complacent if they go off regularly.