House Fire Safety

Funkymonks91

Hi, having recently been analyzing my own home for fire safety measures, i started to wonder how would i manage to cope with getting out of the house if a fire had started. Getting everybody out, kids etc.When thinking about it, im not comfortable relying on an alarm to safe my life in that situation.

I was wondering if anybody had any thoughts on this or any personal experience of what you would do in that situation. Also what sort of fire products have you in place at the moment? Has anyone here had to evacuate a house during a serious housefire??

Thanks

pwurple

My dad is totally paranoid about fires. i think it rubbed off. We are safety nuts too. Smoke, carbon monoxide alarms, both mains and battery. Fire blankets in kitchen and one upstairs. Small extinguishers... Powder and CO2, upstairs and downstairs. Replace those every year. Doors on hinges, close automatically.

Our downstairs routes out are easy. upstairs is climb out onto the porch roof. And jump down. Awkward in the wet. But we have practiced it (when painting or cleaning gutters).

Never had a fire... Fun extinguishing the bbq with the old extinguishers every year though.

Funkymonks91

Cool, why is he so paranoid? had he a bad experience with fire? Your house sounds like the perfect house for fire protection!

angelfire9

Funkymonks91 wrote: »

Hi, having recently been analyzing my own home for fire safety measures, i started to wonder how would i manage to cope with getting out of the house if a fire had started. Getting everybody out, kids etc.When thinking about it, im not comfortable relying on an alarm to safe my life in that situation.

I was wondering if anybody had any thoughts on this or any personal experience of what you would do in that situation. Also what sort of fire products have you in place at the moment? Has anyone here had to evacuate a house during a serious housefire??

Thanks

Yes I have experience of evacuating at night in the dark with smoke everywhere

Not sure how easy it would be now with baby gates all over the house at the time our eldest was about 6 so it wasn't as bad

My tips from experience
1. get smoke alarms that include emergency lighting that light when the alarm goes off and do not require mains power supply ( when our kitchen went up in flames it burnt the MCB board hence no electricity and a night time evacuation is difficult enough in the dark)

2. Make sure if you have to lock your front doors from the inside at night that you can find the key FAST and if it is on a bunch of keys make sure you can identify your door key IN THE DARK (try it, its not as easy as you think)



3. This may sound stupid but a change of clothes in the boot of the car can be a life saver if you have to leave at night in your PJ's

4. Practice a drill with your kids make sure they know what to do

5. If your upstairs windows are locked (due to small people) Sellotape the key to the glass at the top so you can always find it if needed do this for every locked window

CIARAN_BOYLE

angelfire9 wrote: »

3. This may sound stupid but a change of clothes in the boot of the car can be a life saver if you have to leave at night in your PJ's

This 1000 times, an apartment block I was in a while had an incident and a few people were caught out in PJs and they were freezing while stuck outside.

Lisha

angelfire9 wrote: »

5. If your upstairs windows are locked (due to small people) Sellotape the key to the glass at the top so you can always find it if needed do this for every locked window

+1
I also think it is important to have door keys taped to top of doors (or wall or architrave) so doors can be unlocked easily without looking for keys in emergency situation

deandean

If you're worried you might be stuck upstairs buy an ESCAPE LADDER. You open an upstairs window, hook this onto the window board, throw the rest out the window and hey presto you have a fire escape ladder. Get one with the chain links and the wall stand-offs. Here is one example, most safety shops do them too:
http://www.ladders.ie/escapeladder.html

[edit] and if you're really paranoid, get a few of these

http://www.keison.co.uk/drager_paratc_escapehood.shtml

pwurple

deandean wrote: »

If you're worried you might be stuck upstairs buy an ESCAPE LADDER. You open an upstairs window, hook this onto the window board, throw the rest out the window and hey presto you have a fire escape ladder. Get one with the chain links and the wall stand-offs. Here is one example, most safety shops do them too:
http://www.ladders.ie/escapeladder.html

[edit] and if you're really paranoid, get a few of these

http://www.keison.co.uk/drager_paratc_escapehood.shtml

Those ladders are very nifty. Love the one that fits under the bed. Thanks deandean!

Funkymonks91

Some great suggestions here thank you!! Any other suggestions??

Funkymonks91

What was the experience of trying to get out in the dark like? Im sure mixed with smoke it must have been scary stuff

RainyDay

Kids often won't wake up to a normal smoke alarm, but will wake up to a parent's voice;

http://www.webmd.com/news/20061003/moms-voice-makes-better-smoke-alarm

Check out these alarms; http://www.amazon.com/KidSmart-Vocal-Smoke-Alarm-Detector/dp/B0018SANVY as an alternative

amen

Small extinguishers

waste of time. often too small to put the fire out completely. Buy the biggest you can afford.

Unplug everthing from the sockets going to bed.

Keep all doors in the house closed. A closed door in a modern house should be fire rated for 30-45 mins. So smoke may escape under door which hopefully sets of your smoke detector giving you plenty of time to escape.

Teach your kids to crawl on the floor in case of fire. Teach you kids that once out they stay out not matter what (and don't bring anything with them) and go to a neighbours house/dedicated meeting point. Contact emergency services.

Don't jump from an upstairs window as you are jumping from from 10 feet +.

Good chance of broken bones. If possible much safe to turn around and hang from the window ledge. If you are an adult thats only a drop of 4-5 feet. Much safer.

pwurple

amen wrote: »

waste of time. often too small to put the fire out completely. Buy the biggest you can afford.

I disagree.
-Big extinguishers are too heavy to use effectively for most people.
-The extra expense leads people to skip replacing them every year.
-They give people a false sense of confidence about tackling larger fires.

I wouldn't put out anything bigger than a towel on fire with a small extinguisher. With a bigger one I might be tempted to try a larger fire possibly... That wasted time is dangerous.

On the high drop thing. We just moved to a rented place, no porch to land on from the upstairs window. I think if we owned, i would be building one. My paranoia knows no bounds.

Mr Magnolia

Detectors upstairs and down. Keep a large extinguisher upstairs. Plan your escape route from upstairs with no access to downstairs (out a specific window jumping or throwing onto a parked car if you've no alternative). Small lights or smoke detectors with lights built in are useless in smoke. Awful to say but if you're searching for a child in a smoke filled room and they're not in the bed, check underneath. Try and keep your bearings, a small room can seem like the tardis when it's smoke filled, you will get lost.

Hannibal Smith

such a scary thread yet such an important one....we have a garage to the side which we're too broke to convert to a living space...I'm glad now...that'll be our escape route! jeez I hope I never have to put anything in here to use

tigerblob

Nobody ever tells you this, but our house went on fire in January 2009 and none of our (regularly tested and obsessed over) fire alarms went off. The fire brigade told us that it was because they were mounted on the walls. They have to be mounted on the ceilings, not on a slope or wall or anything.

Cerulean Chicken

tigerblob wrote: »

Nobody ever tells you this, but our house went on fire in January 2009 and none of our (regularly tested and obsessed over) fire alarms went off. The fire brigade told us that it was because they were mounted on the walls. They have to be mounted on the ceilings, not on a slope or wall or anything.

Why would you put one on the wall in the first place??

myparenting101

It is scary.. A wide window upstairs or fire exit will help & also a ladder to get down is better escape in case of fire.