FIRE Are you prepared?

[Zetetic]

So far we have

• smoke alarms which are wired into mains electricity (with a battery backup that beeps if it runs out - which always seems to be at 3am in the morning).

• a roll up fire ladder (we have three stories)

• I drive the family mad by assessing fire exits in any hotel / b&b / self catering place. I once found a locked fire door at a hotel!

• fire extinguisher / fire blanket in kitchen

By the door seems sensible to me, then you can either grab it on your way in, or on your way out, away from the fire.

There is a lot of useful information in this thread, thank you. Can I ask what people do about protecting vital documents/paperwork in the (hopefully unlikely) event of fire? I have been looking at fireproof boxes online, but there's a myriad of choice and am not sure where to start. I do keep copies of vital docs elsewhere, but would like to keep the originals as protected as possible. Any advice gratefully received.

We have a Sentry firebox. There are various ones ranging in price depending on size and fire rating. Some protect documents for 30 minutes and others for 160 minutes.

I would go for the biggest one you can afford and fit in your house as we stuff all sorts into ours - copies of precious photos, important documents, house insurance.... It sits in the bottom of a cupboard.

www.safe.co.uk/products/2037-document-box.html

Thanks Zetetic that looks very useful, will investigate further.

You don't really need fire extinguishers. I used to work for a F&RS and during my own home safety visit they said that as long as the smoke detectors (all 6 in my tiny house) got us out they would deal with the fire safely.

Depends where you live though, there is no chance the firebrigade would get to us to get us out so extinguishers are recommended and needed to keep your fire insurance valid.

We have our detectors on the ceilings on each floor just outside the rooms the fires are in.

We have our docs in a fire safe in MIL house, and copies in our own house.

thanks for the link.

That gives you a different situation to most of us then, winchester. (My own current house is 3 minutes away from a main, permanently manned, fire station and within only a slightly greater distance of a whole load more (of the same) if there were eg to be multiple conflagrations which were diverting tenders.)

True I'm not in such an average place i suppose

I'm half an hour from a manned station. There is an unmanned one that is staffed by PT volunteers about 5 minutes away.

In my last house, most of the fire safety services were provided by volunteers - in fact most of the safety services in general eg rescue at sea - and Boy were those guys committed and good. (And well-trained.)

You think through your fire plan and your precautions in light of what is going to be available to you at any one time I guess. My own fire safety walk through in, and planning for, this house was very much influenced by the likely situation in the event of a fire. (Not totally, though.)

As always, you try for prevention with something like fire - as best you can. Extricating yourself and your family safely is the prime thing but anyone who has ever been in a fire will also know how awful it is - insurance or no - dealing with the aftermath of the physical effects on a property and its contents. You need to try to avoid any blazes if at all possible so taking some - perhaps - small measures and looking at your behaviour patterns now is the best thing.

Our smoke alarms are checked every month although they bleep when running low anyway. To the pp who mentioned the half opening windows ours open halfway too but if you press in on the hinge bit on either side it releases and will open far wider in order to escape.

I keep setting the smoke alarm off by mistake lately. On the plus side the DC have become very good at racing outside whenever it happens just in case it is a real fire.

As long as they don't become complacent?

The thing to remember about fire is that everything has to be so FAST. You really won't have time to do more than get the heck out so do your thinking and preparations beforehand.

Daughter of fire fighter here. In your escape plan count your stairs as you won't be able to see in the dark. DF made us do it as children and we'd do it when away from home - theatres, hotels, friends houses. I still do it. Also check exits.

Oh Yes. Exits. It's quite frightening how many houses or establishments have blocked exits - either locked or with piles of 'stuff' by them.