Doesanyone have one of those portable fire escape ladders?

[virgiltracey]

Horrible story on the local news today about four children being killed in a fire and it made me think about how we'd get out in an emergency. I've seen the portable escape ladders but wondered whether they are actually any good and how much safety type stuff people have in the house?

We have a fire extinguisher and fire blanket in the kitchen but thats it. Wondering whether I'm in the minority?

No!

We live in a three storey house and I keep thinking about a ladder.

No extinguishers or blankets, but we do have smoke alarms. ...and a half arsed fire plan!

Smoke alarm is the most important device I think.

We had one of those chain ladder things that rolled out of the living room window - but we were in a flat on the third floor at the back of a large house of flats.

Now we are detached and we have fire extinguisher & blanket in the kitchen, smoke alarms on both floors and I close all the downstairs doors every night before I come up to bed. We had a fire inspection and consultation with the Fire Service when we moved in and they said that a ladder wouldn't be necessary if we took the above precautions.

Having said that we may re-evaluate if we convert the loft.

awful story.

this might be a good time to remind people that the fire service will come and fit smoke alarms in your house for free, can usually be booked online.

yes, I used to lose sleep about how we would get out of the house in case of a fire. We have one bedroom where the window opens fully and we have an escape ladder in there. It folds into a tiny little box and is bolted to the wall with huge bolts. I hope we never ever have to use it but I do now sleep better for knowing it is there. It cost around £75 I think, not bad really. We also have a fire blanket in the kitchen and the usual smoke detectors.

Just had a quick look and they're only about £35 in Tescos. Can't quite work out whether they are single use though (not that you'd want to ever have to use them more than once but have visions of the DSs unravelling for fun!)

Must check the batteries in the smoke alarms...

No, or fire blanket, or fire extinguisher, but I am going to rectify that ASAP. It's awful, those poor children and their poor Mother.

Hangingbelly is your the type that you can roll back up and use again?

ASDA have them £10 off at the moment

When we lived in a flat this used to really bother me - I was terrified of being stuck in a second floor flat with two small children. We did buy a ladder - I wonder how we would have ever got them down it.

Now we live in a house - we have fire extinguishers upstairs and downstairs - smoke alarms. I close doors before going to bed and I ensure that the exit route is clear....I'm a tiny bit obsessed.

I never close doors before bedtime. I should start doing that.

yes ours can be re-rolled. It has a cover and one time when dd was only about 2 she did partially unravel it and it did go back in fine. We've had ours about 4 years so they may well have come down in price.You could choose a plain white box cover for the home or one that said 'emergency escape ladder' in big red letters for public buidlign use. I chose the one with big red letters

We had the fire service round today to do a free fire safety check - think most areas offer this, so you could see if yours does. They gave us free smoke alarms too, better quality than the ones we had. Our firemen said that we should have a fire exit plan - and for us, if the main exit is blocked due to the fire, then it should be to all gather in our bedroom, block the bottom of the door with clothes to stop smoke, open the window and ring the fire brigade. They didn't recommend ladders etc. (impractical with v. small children anyway). They said it's very important to close doors before you go to bed - it will stop the fire spreading, but enough smoke will get out to trigger the smoke alarms. Also turn off at the plug anything (like TV etc.) that can be left on standby. They didn't recommend fire extinguishers etc. - said that they encourage people to tackle fires themselves and it's better to concentrate on getting out and calling the fire brigade.

hi just thought i would let you all know i just bought one of these fire escape ladders in a white box its called the down n out i got it from www.banksies.co.uk i paid about 80 pounds if you go on there website they have a video running that shows you how it works
i live on the 3rd floor and i think they do smaller ones and longer ones a least its there if needed lets hope not

No, but I do have lots of smoke alarms.

Many people forget abpout alarms in bedrooms. I'm a bit obsessed and have one in each bedroom, as DC have i-pods, computers, phones etc and although I drone on about unplugging everything, I'm not sure they do! As they are 17 and 20 I have to stop myself don't think it is appropriate to do a nightly fire saftey check in their rooms

I have smoke alarms in most rooms (previous owners installed them) and do check them regularly, but I think I might invest in a fire blanket. Also DD1 has a loft conversion bedroom, so I wonder if a ladder might be a good idea. She does have a fire door but maybe a ladder would be good too.

I think I will phone the Fire Service and ask for a home check and see what they say, thanks for the reminder. Might also get some hunky fireman round!

So very sad about that poor family though