Do you have a fire plan?

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How seriously do you take fire hazard precautions? Do you have a plan? DO you practice? What age did you teach dc's about what to do? What about sn kids?

Just curious, anther thread was heading here and thought best on its own.

yes, but as both my dc's are in cots then i'm in charge of it all. I work for the fire service and you should be able to go through the web site of your local one and get some good home safety advice, our one visits and fits smoke alarms (hunky firemen + fire engine!).

To be honest, i take it very very seriously as i have typed up some pretty grim fire investigations in my time, from what i've seen most fires are pretty preventable. And i check my smoke alarms every week.

We do - we live in a timber framed thatch cottage (more matchbox than chocolate box in fire terms).

The kids aren't old enough yet to practice but we have had to evacuate once with DD - thought the boiler was going to blow up - it didn't, the safety tripped. It has since been replaced, but I did discover out my arse is small enough to get out of 15th century narrow windows but that landing on spikey plants is a lot more painful than you'd think.

DH used to smoke when I met him, he quit years ago but I still find lighters and matches all over the house even now. I have tried to go round the entire house but it does worry me a lot just in case.

Yes, know what I'd do - although haven't actually let the kids in on the plan (5 & 3) mainly because ds is a panic-er, and the threat of potential fire would scare the bejesus out of him

We take it very seriously.

Never go to bed without making sure we both have our door keys, torch, keys for upstairs windows, mobiles charged and right next to our beds.

All pathways to doors and stairs completely cleared before we go to bed, smoke detectors are fully operational. We have low voltage lights along the escape paths.

We close all doors downstairs and could be out of the house in well under 2 mins if the alarms went off providing we can use the stairs.

If trapped upstairs we can climb on a flat roof through a window and then jump down 3 metres.

yes. we did what meglet said and got them to come round it was v useful.
they said they had never seen so many smoke alarms in one house! (we have one in each room, plus the landings!)
more to the point they advised we didn't need a fire ladder thingy for our third floor, as we don't live that far from the fire station.
also they had useful things to say like leave keys in the same place near the door etc.

Kind of.. we know what escape route we'd use from upstairs and make sure theres always a window lock key by that window. But we haven't properly thought out getting the dog out... need to stash a spare back door key somewhere outside. Thanks for bringing this up.

I don't lock the windows unless we are going away for a few days. I would rather have everything stolen than be trapped looking for a key. Went to the fire Station with kids on Sunday. Will buy more alarms and hope that DH will put them up in a sensible place instead of some where aesthetically pleasing He is a nightmare.

We can get out of the stairs window onto the roofed side of house as long as we can get to the stairs. We have three outside doors downstairs and keys are kept near them for this reason

So great that you have started this thread. Having seen loads of fire saftey videos showing just how quickly a domestic fire can spread - it is always good to have it clear in your mind how you and the family would get out and raise the alarm in the event of fire.

Great advice from posters here. Abetadad, great stuff.

Knowing how to open doors / windows quickly (if you have them locked) is paramount as is raising the alarm. Starbear - i agree, dp likes windows locked - i always unlock them esp the upstairs windows, frightens the life out of me to think I might have to try and find the fiddly key!

Smoke detectors are a life saver.

not really...we always used to leave keys in front door but now just have top lock and chain on which can be opened without keys

there is only one way out (the front door) so that makes it easier but more frightening

that said we arent far from fire sstation so if we needed to escape via windows hopefully they would be here

ooh, some useful tips on here - esp ABetaDad. Bump for the daytime crowd

Does anyone else do the reduction in electrical fire risk? We have everything unpluged (with the exception of alarm clocks) every eveing and when not in use.

We also have spare keys available in multiple locations. Have to keep ds' window locked though as he would try to jump out of it other wise (no fear no sense and 4)Used to know where key was but have been helped and now need to relocate.

Going to talk to ds about fire safety and get him used to sound (he is very sudden sound sensitive!) this is the plan for this weekend. Bet the constant going off of alarm will drive neighbours potty maybe should warn them...