Leaving children in the house, whilst in the garden - acceptable??

[harman]

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Oh how awful. Yes of course it's reasonable imo. Have you got a smoke alarm?

agree with myjobs - how could a fire take hold so as to kill a child and someone in the garden not notice unless you lived in a mansion with an enormous garden?

oh you have just reminded me to get a new battery. thankyou

I suppose it might depend on how big the garden is...mine is tiny but if you had a very long one and were going to be right at the far end for a longish period of time, you might want to take a baby monitor?

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That story doesn't ring true, tbh.

but surely the chances of a fire starting whether you are inside or outside the house would be the same unless there was foul play.

Are we going to take our kids to the toilet with us or allow them to be in a different room? my dd is asleep in her room upstairs as I type this - should I be in the room with her?

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I saw reports of this on the TV, weren't these houses (which are described as "terraced" in this report) temporary gerry-built ones? IE, far more vulnerable to a fire suddenly taking hold than your average terraced house?

Normally I'd say of course it's reasonable to be in the garden. In a house which is made of straw though, I guess being in a different room is dangerous. Or being in the house at all.

I know nothing of fires so have no idea how quickly one can take hold given a certain mixture of materials. I presume that house had no smoke alarms?

We have very large gardens so I wouldn't leave dd in the house and be out in the front garden but I would be in the small back garden which adjoins the house. I put clothes on the line and leave dd in the house but I wouldn't get immersed in a task and leave her in the house

Yeah, it also seemed to me that those houses were unsuitable for long-term habitation, unfortunately.

Totally reasonable. But your house should be adequately childproofed if you're going to leave your kids to wander around.

They could just as easily get up in the night and sustain severe burns.

Also you have to use common sense. I would leave DS in the living room with the childgate shut and go into the garden, but I wouldn't leave him in the kitchen with the deep-fat fryer going.

They are pre ww2 prefabs. So probably not particularly safe in terms of fire risk.

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Oh blimey that's frightening Harman.

How come the smoke alarms didn't go off I wonder?

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I would. I don't have a huge garden though.
Me being in the garden would barely be further than being upstairs to down. Unless one of the children found matches while unsupervised then the cahnces of the fire starting are the same whether you were in or out.
I only ever go into the garden to hang out washing and leave them inside or maybe sit out in the summer when they are alseep I wouldn't leave them to play in the house while I went and sat outside.

morning all just having a catch up, i read about the fire yesterday in my local paper im to in medway, i cant beleive she was in the back garden and it spread that quick surely not,im getting paranoid now cos i live in a town house and if they do spread that quickly then if my daughter was up in the bedroom on the top floor i couldnt get to her on time. it all seems very strange

I have throught about this too.

I live in a three storey town house. So, although my garden isn't large at all, if we are in the garden we wouldn't be able to hear DD upstairs at all. We do have fire alarms and I am sure I would hear them, but it certainly makes you think.

I do this regularly and would still do you can't take them everywhere as parents we are already accussed of being over watchful of our children. I think this must be a one in a million chance surely. Smoke alarms however, must be a must whether you have children or not.

its acceptable and normal and really a Good Thing

but no wonder you are feeling twitchy! What a sad story.

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oh harmen so sad, but try not to frighten yourself too much, house fires are still rare.

before dh and I got together, someone poured petrol through their letter box. the smoke alarms melted, didnt get a chance to go off, what woke them up was the fire extingiser exploding. they all got out safely.