Paranoid about our house layout in case of fire

[Canadiangeese]

My DS’s bedroom is in the attic, he is 7.
We live in a Victorian mid terrace from 1901.
It’s tall and narrow like most around here.

The only way we’d get to him if there was a fire is via the stairs (the room has stairs access) but even then there is no way to escape the room. It has a sky light - I have attached a photo to this post to you can see what I mean.
There's no way we’d get out of there. It does open quite wide but my DS would be unable to reach it and I’m plus size in build, so wouldn’t be able to get out. My DP would be the only one likely to.

The other floors would be easier to get out of (the bathroom window opens right out and we could jump) but my main concern is my DS. He does have a fish tank in his room that’s running at all times (it’s freshwater and contains his pet fish) I’m thinking of moving that downstairs now. I turn all other plugs off and we have a smoke alarm on every level of the house.

The second photo is the stairs we access to the attic rooms.

Can you ask your local fire service for a home fire safety check? They could advise on an escape plan and any additional precautions.

You can ask the fire brigade to give you advice on placements of fire alarms and planned escape routes.

When was your loft converted? We did ours a few years ago and we had to do things like change all the bedroom and living room doors to fire doors to create a protected route down the stairs to the exit, the fire alarms are mains powered so no need to worry about batteries etc. If yours is older and doesnt have things like this, then you could potentially put them in place for some added reassurance.

If you have good smoke alarms you would be alerted in time to help your son. With a roof room you could keep a collapsible ladder up there and a heavy hammer for the window but it’s very unlikely you’d have a major fire that becomes overwhelming. I know the awful case in Stroud is in the news but that’s very unusual.

It's one of the reasons we just moved from our terrace house. My plan was to drop onto the kitchen roof but the windows were small and I was concerned how we get out. One narrow twisting staircase in middle of house. Neighbour house had a mini fire a year ago which luckily didn't spread. Ask the fire brigade to do a fire risk on your house.

I think it’s made us all have a think , We was talking about it at work today .. My mother in law had a rope type ladder fitted to the window on the 3rd floor, she also had a fire door fitted before the stairs to the 3rd floor it’s also made me think of things I’m tempted to buy . Electrical stuff from Temu or tik tok shop .. The news has been horrible this week.

Have you got a plan
Was it recently converted and compliant with building regs ?

Good suggestions here already. Yes - get the fire service out to give you advice - there are usually schemes for them to do so. Lots that can be done - mains powered (both battery back up) smoke/heat alarms, fire proof doors etc. Should hopefully help you see you’ve done all you can.

It wouldn't pass building regs today - can you change the window?

We used to keep a fire escape ladder in our attic bedroom. Even if he can’t use it you may be able to if you ran up to save him.

@ChrimboLimbo Unfortunately there is just no way we can afford to.

I will look at getting the fire service out to have a look.

From memory, I think rooms with only skylights cannot be classed as bedrooms precisely because of the fire hazard.

@Genevieva When we bought the house it was sold as having three bedrooms. E.g, the two in the attic which both have skylights. And even on Zoopla now when I do a search for our house for an estimate it says “3 bed”

Get fire doors fitted. Especially to the kitchen, any utility room and bedrooms; along with interlinked detectors (heat one in the kitchen and smoke elsewhere in the house, at a minimum one in each hallway).

Seriously, look up how effective fire doors (when fitted and maintained correctly) are at preventing the spread of fire and smoke. They are fantastic protection and they give the fire service time to attend and make a plan to get anyone out. I work in an industry which deals with fire protection of residential homes and these two things are the ones which were non negotiable in my own house.

You can also get escape ladders fitted for the top floor but early detection/containment is better risk mitigation, and won’t rely on your DH being up there to help your DS.

I’d suggest you look into it. When my granny downsized the house she bought had a room above the garage that had skylights and was accessed from the first floor, like the other upstairs rooms, but couldn’t be classed as a bedroom for this reason. I what I dt remember is whether it was advertised as a bedroom initially or not. My father did he conveyancing for her and was pretty hot on this stuff. Unfortunately, she’s no longer with us and my father has some dementia, so I doubt he will remember. He might surprise me though. He’s still an amazing history buff. It’s more recent stuff he forgets.

I’ve been having similar thoughts. Two up two down in a rural area, middle of a small terrace. We rent, and it’s suddenly occurred to me that we don’t have a fire extinguisher and/or blanket here, which I’ve had in every other house we’ve lived in. Similarly, there aren’t any fire doors in any part of the house.

If a fire started downstairs I’d have to be awake and able to get to my DC across the very small hallway, where I could probably drop them down out of the old wood-framed windows in their room, as they’re fastened by casement stays and open outward. My own bedroom window is a small uPVC sash so I’d be pretty fucked I reckon.

Am eyeing up a fire ladder that clips onto the windowsill for DCs room, and continuing to be vigilant with switching everything off at bedtime. It’s a worry, but there’s not a huge amount I can do beyond that.

I’ve filled in the form online for my local fire department and got this automated response:

@Genevieva

I will do, but we have had the house properly surveyed etc. I don’t understand how they could list it as a bedroom if it isn’t one.

That means technically ours is a one bedroom house? But it’s been sold to us as 3.

Only if they are kept shut. They should have self closers but people prop them open. Important that this is not done if you fit them.

Depends when the roof rooms were converted

If There’s room and a hall create a fire escape with 30min fire rated doors all the way to an exit ( front or rear door which ever is easier )

Ensure first floor windows are escape windows just in case the escape door is blocked by fire you can jump out of a window on the first floor

Do not site a kitchen on an escape route and have a self closing fire door on the kitchen

If you have a plan we could look and see if all that fits with your home

Rooms with skylights can be habitable rooms
Depends on height of skylight etc. all as bregs.

It currently needs to be below 1.1 and above 900 ( H&s ) for fire escape purposes but these regs were different a while back so may still have conformed when converted

I have had fire ladders installed in my attic bedrooms. The house was built in the late 1800s and is wood (US) and that whole idea was freaking me out. Ours are stored in built in seats under one of the windows in each room. I think they can be fitted to the outside of the windows and then you just open the window and roll the ladder down. Obviously, if they're outside, they'd need to be replaced but the whole thing cost me less than $300. Not including the built in part, obviously!

Change the attic bedroom doors to fire doors.

https://www.directdoors.com/collections/fire-doors?view=bc-original

That gives 30minutes fire protection, which is enough time for the fire brigade to come out and rescue.

Make sure you have fire alarms, preferably wired in and linked, so if one goes off downstairs the one upstairs goes off as well.

Then run through with the kids what to do - if the alarm goes off and the staircase isn’t clear, shut the door tight, block up gaps to slow smoke and open the window, shout for help etc….

This is not likely to happen, and if you have the right doors, there is enough time to call the fire services.

Just to reassure you, I was a household claims manager for 7 years in the late 90s for a major big 4 banks insurance business (HSBC if your interested ). This was before the developments in smoke alarms and ready availability and improvements in fire doors. I can count on one hand the number of major fires reported to my team. We had a specialist team who dealt with major long term claims like subsidence and flooding. There were 30 people in that team for a company who dealt with house insurance for 2 of the big four banks and a lot of the major building societies. If they had 2 major fire claims open at once I'd be surprised.

We didn't have one fatality or major injury. Thank god...I previously worked motor claims so dealt with a few.

As everyone says get the fire brigade in. I've a mate who is a senior fire officer and he would love it if more people asked his team to visit...they have trained fire officers to do it.