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.

@ShesTheAlbatross youngest is 7, but he has ADHD and has form for taking risks and doing things he shouldn't which is what prompted the catches. I think I will need to give this some thought.

is there such a thing as window safety catches that can be unlocked to fully open the window? If so, that could be a solution if the key was kept somewhere close by?

All our doors are fire doors (townhouse, required) and have linked fire alarms with battery back up. All windows open though you need to come down to middle floor due to height, we have a balcony you can climb down from. Despite the popularity on Mumsnet, do not leave phones etc charging downstairs at night, if you need to charge overnight it needs to be in your room. I charge mine in the evening

Yes they're just restrictors that can be easily unhooked by an adult to fully open the window but my worry is that the children don't know how to or couldn't manage it in the panic of a fire. And also if I demonstrate to DS how they unhook then it sort of defeats the object of them being there. Bit of a case of weighing up the higher risk 🤔

A lot of fire brigades will fit free alarms. They last ten years and they say they’ll come back to replace them then. It’s well worth it.

There was a big house fire a few doors down from us a couple of years back, and it’s all terraces here. We were packed up in ten minutes, DH hovering in the crowd outside to see if we’d need to evacuate to a hotel (no family).

Some people wont even get the chance to try and escape. They are overcome by smoke even in their beds.
Do they know what caused this fire?

I agreed a plan with DH when we first had DC2 (when I realised we needed to be coordinated to get both DC) but we’ve moved twice since then plus now live in a 3 storey house with just DC1 on the top floor. Thank you for the reminder OP to discuss a plan with the teenagers.

I also need to stop leaving the vacuum cleaner charging overnight under the stairs. I also don’t think the DC know how to open the windows properly as they are on restricters.

I’m not going to sleep now.

Such an important issue. Any tips for chatting to DC without freaking them out. I had a chat with my autistic 9 year old, and 5 year old yesterday and they did not cope well.

The awful news has made us look at things too. We are relatively fortunate as we are all on one level at night, each room has fire escape windows, we are only two storeys so possible to jump if need be, and most of the appliances that pose a fire risk are in our utility room extension, which has all external walls. But I have been thinking about it a lot the last few days.

We made it into a bit of a game yesterday with 6yo and 3yo. We had a pretend fire drill, so they got into bed and pretended to be asleep, DH set the fire alarm off and they jumped out of bed and waited for one of us to come to get them, and we all went to the main bedroom and to the window. We then did another version where we couldn’t get to them, and they went to their windows to open them and pretended to shout FIRE, HELP.

We tried to keep it a bit silly so as not to scare them and they thought it was great fun. It was a chance for DH and I to discuss what we would do: who gets what child and an agreement we wouldn’t attempt to get downstairs to get the dog, just get us outside and then try to get her out by breaking the kitchen patio doors. And DH looked from window and as he’s v tall reckoned he could drop down onto one of the cars in the driveway and then be in a good position to help the rest of us down. We didn’t do a test run of that though!

I hope we never have to use any of it but I feel a bit better knowing we’ve discussed it and tested the fire alarms. We got them all replaced a couple of years ago so they are all linked etc and in all the rooms they should be, both heat detectors and the traditional smoke alarms.

We always had a plan. The children each had a desk and office chair in their rooms. They were all taught that it was okay to break the window if they needed to and the exit via their door was blocked by fire. Throw the desk chair at the window, throw their doona cover over the broken glass and climb out the window. Meet on the next-door neighbour's front lawn. Sometimes in a panic situation, children hide in cupboards or under their beds, afraid to break a window in case they get in trouble, so teaching that this is okay in an emergency is important.

Friends of ours had taught their children to run and grab the folders that had all their school certificates in them. I had a serious chat with the friend. Yes, those items were sentimental and might only take a moment to grab, but both children had upstairs bedrooms. I asked her what she valued more, what would happen if her child ran upstairs to grab the folder and was then trapped. Fortunately, they reevaluated their family plan after that.

so if your local crew are out on an incident already, no other fire crew from another town would come to your house fire?? Really?? What I’m saying is that you can’t assume it’ll be your local crew so they won’t know the way around your house.

Oh god. Noted. Thank you.

There’s been another truly awful fire in Switzerland. This thread prompted me to check our fire alarms and discuss basic safety with 6 year old DD. It’s all so sad.

We don't have children two bed small house and our front bedroom where we sleep has two full opening side windows over a sloping roof bay window so max drop from the edge of that would be 7ft 6 doeable