Experienced a housefire?

[Tinkobell]

Hello! DS15 is a bit of an inventor! He's doing a project to understand the experiences of householders who may have had the misfortune of suffering a housefire. What happened? What caused the fire?

He is developing a remote early warning system. He wants to know specifically whether any early warning would or could have limited damage or injury caused by your fire?
I hope you can help. Thanks for your time and any comments.

We didn't have one but our neighbours did. They told us it was an elecrical fault but he was a prolific smoker in the bedroom (where the fire started) so we were not convinced. The houses were terraced and we got home to find our house taped off and full of smoke. Perhaps he should consider fire containment and ways to stop it spreading through rooms and properties?

We had one in a holiday cottage. The flue from the log burner got really got and caused the insulation & wooden mantle to catch light. We were woken about 4am by the carbon monoxide detector. The smoke was the worst - it got everywhere. The actual fire was put out with a pint glass of water by the fire brigade once they'd removed the lintel.

Thank you both.....really appreciated will pass your comments onto him. 🙂

I went to view a house on the market recently which had been rebuilt due to a fire. The solar panels caused the fire.

Name changed (I hope) for this

Yes, we had one when I was a teenager. Significant smoke damage throughout the house but actual fire damage was one corner of the room. Fire was caused either by an electrical fault with the TV or a candle on top of it (I know, this was the 90s and Christmas time!). We were out of the house for around 4 months.

A remote early warning system would have been great, we were elsewhere in the village so could have come back considerably earlier and damage would hopefully have been limited. Happy to help further if he has any more questions!

Idiot brother knocked a candle on to a sofa. Extensive smoke damage, windows broken by heat (sofa was under window), walls needed replastering etc.

We knew about it immediately as idiot was there so a warning system wouldn't have helped us. Good idea though - would make sense to link alarms to phones via an app so you can get home to deal (and it could tell you if the battery is low - you might actually remember to get a new one when you're at the shops then!).

Our intruder alarm rings my mobile if it goes off. A smoke alarm that did the same would be great.

We had a fire in the family home 20 years ago, caused by a chip pan being left on.
Mum was stressed as we left the house in a rush and we didn't return for several hours. Huge amount of damage and the whole house had to be refurbed, fire brigade told us that even 10 mins later and it would have ended in structural damage.

My dads work was less than a 3 minute walk from the house (but it was a secluded house that no one overlooked etc) so if there was some kind of warning signal that could go to fire brigade and someone's phone direct then that would have dramatically reduced the damage to our situation.

I heard of a similar thing with cars sending alerts to emergency services when they have been in a crash so I think a similar set up for smoke alarms would be an invaluable creation!!
Good luck to your son with the project!

Businesses have intruder and fire alarms linked to monitoring centres which call out the police, fire service, etc. It's not particularly expensive but you do get false alarms. I imagine that if domestic systems were connected in the same way it could be a nightmare.

Our intruder alarm rings my mobile if it goes off. A smoke alarm that did the same would be great.

We have nest protects in our house. Each one is a fine and coarse smoke alarm as well as heat and CO alarm. If there is any trigger my phone goes off as well as a very loud alarm.

The system also self-tests 400 times/month and suggests an audible test is carried out once/month. Every month I get an email detailing any failure on any part of the self test and it reminds me how long since an audible test or alarm has been.

Additionally at night each one forms a soft light when you walk past so you don’t need to switch lights on enroute to the bathroom.

All of this links into the nest thermostat which connects to my phone. Every time the smoke alarm goes off I get sent a recording (which records each of the nest cameras I have around the house). It was extremely funny to watch my mother running around like a mad woman one time when she burnt toast.

I had a house fire. I lost a dog & a cat (smoke inhalation) so an early warning system would have been a great help. I was 10 minutes away.
Apparently it was an electrical fault. The whole wall was live.