Do you have any (working) smoke detectors...?

[tedebear]

By means of providing something of a happy ending, I've just heard that the one surviving kitten has been adopted by the firefighter that found him cowering under a bed on our initial sweep on the house. He has been re-christened 'Smokey', and inspite a slightly singed tail, he is doing well

Awww sweet!

Just as a funny anecdote...a few moths ago a fire truck came down our street, traffic was a little tight so it was outside our house for a few minutes before it could make its way on....Arthur was standing on our bed at the window at the time (waiting for Daddy to come home from work) and saw the truck, and was absolutely mesmerized.....icing on the cake was the fireman driving looked up saw him and waved...Arthur nearly jumped out the window trying to wave back. Saving lives and nice guys to boot!!

 

[Bry Nylon]

Right...have now located the alarms I brought with me, will get batteries and install tomorrow!

Minimum of one alarm per storey, located on your escape route (ie - hallway, landing etc). You need to know when smoke is encroaching into what is your family's escape route. I know after the floods they are flat out at the moment, but if you have any doubts whatsover, contact Gloucestershire Fire & Rescue, and they will arrange a home visit to advise on any home fire safety issues.

 

[NMH]

I was wondering just last week, what rould happen if there was a fire in this place. Even if I was home, awake, aware and had time..... there's no fire extinguisher. I'd be filling saucepans from the sink, if I could even get to the sink!

 

[Bry Nylon]

Awww sweet!

Just as a funny anecdote...a few moths ago a fire truck came down our street, traffic was a little tight so it was outside our house for a few minutes before it could make its way on....Arthur was standing on our bed at the window at the time (waiting for Daddy to come home from work) and saw the truck, and was absolutely mesmerized.....icing on the cake was the fireman driving looked up saw him and waved...Arthur nearly jumped out the window trying to wave back. Saving lives and nice guys to boot!!

Waving to kids on the way to, and on the way back from shouts is the best part of the job!

 

[Cian]

One I know is working as I set it off when cooking today
One I assume is working as it beeps like a dying mobile when its battery starts to go. I'll test it tomorrow, though.

Tested both

 

[tedebear]

Fire extinguishers a plenty here at Tedebear mansions, as i said before its habit for me. When you grow up with bush fires you learn that any material items that are special fit in a box under your bed that you can grab in a hurry, fire extinguishers are everywhere and learning to use the honda generator to pump the water out of next doors pool is vital!

 

[London Calling]

Same here. Installed a few years ago. Nobody told us there were back up batteries. so when the alarm started chirping after a couple of months on account of the batteries I never knew existed running low on power, I sort of assumed the flat downstairs was on fire or something and called out the East Sussex Fire Brigade who duly arrived several minutes later with a full crew in a fire engine

We were told ours were on rechargeable batteries, so when one started chirping recently, we were confused and at first alarmed. A midnight alarm.

A real palava as well to change the battery!!

 

[leonidas]

About 15 years ago, when living in Worthing, me, the missus and the 2 kids, having breakfast and the smoke detector goes off. I have a look around ( it was a big house ) and the cuboard under the stairs has smoke billowing out.
The missus gets the kids out and calls the fire brigade while I have a go with the fire extinguisher. This doesn't work as its about 5 years out of date but I do manage to put the fire out before the Brigade arrives.

Frightened the the life out of me, an hour earlier and we would all have been upstairs in bed and without the detectors we would never have known.

Turned out SEEB had fitted the wrong sized fuse donkeys years ago.

Lucky now, live in a brand new city center block thats got the bollocks, hard wired detectors, fire doors the works.

 

[Bry Nylon]

I was wondering just last week, what rould happen if there was a fire in this place. Even if I was home, awake, aware and had time..... there's no fire extinguisher. I'd be filling saucepans from the sink, if I could even get to the sink!

What sort of property do you live in, NMH?

 

[NMH]

What sort of property do you live in, NMH?

A two-bedroom first-floor flat. In the country, no fire station nearby, no garden hose or spigot.

 

[Gully]

Cheers Bry, that is where I had them in my last house, one on the landing not far from my bedroom door...all the better to wake me up during the night...and the other in the living room not far from the kitchen door, have already identified similar places to put them in this house. You are right about our local Fire Service being busy, not only do they pump water from power stations and water treatment works, but I have also seen them out filling our bowsers up.

 

[Lady Bracknell]

I was in a rather dramatic house fire back in 1977. Caused by the person who assured me that I was being unreasonably difficult in objecting to him having brought a motorbike into our sitting room in order to fix a seized brake cable. His theory might have been correct had he not managed to dislodge a breather pipe from the fuel tank at the same time. And even then, all might have been less excitingly resolved if he'd turned the paraffin heater off when requested before starting all this indoor motorcycle maintenance.

As it was, a mighty explosion resulted and I was treated to the sight of a man doing a passable impression of an Olympic torch - he'd attempted to stem the flow of petrol by putting his finger where the pipe should have been. It was at this point that I realised the soundness of the Fire Brigade advice to "get out and stay out" because the fire was consuming the flat in a way that was quite impossible to tackle unless you were the Fire Brigade. Being a petrol ignited fire, water wouldn't have been any help either. Although in reality you would have died from the fumes long before you'd found and filled a bucket of water.

Being a ground floor flat with the bedroom directly off the sitting room, I got both of us in there and put the Human Torch out by throwing all the bedclothes over him and rolling him in them. It took three attempts before he stopped re-igniting and then I realised that were in a completely unrecognisable environment since nothing was visible through the dense black smoke.

I recall the Human Torch saying something along the lines of "Sorry. I didn't intend us to die like this" and me telling him I had no intention of dying at the age of 25 in a crappy, fiery flat in Hove! So I broke the bedroom window and lugged him through it like a singed bag of spuds. The upshot was that he spent 6 weeks in the Burns Unit at East Grinstead and the flat was totally burnt out.

But it was the speed at which normality turned lethal that was most chilling because I doubt it was more than two or three minutes from the fire starting to the flat being destroyed and the pair of us very nearly destroyed with it.

Since then I've always had an escape route planned in every house I've lived in because there's no way you can successfully and safely fight anything significant in the way of a fire.

 

[bhaexpress]

I have two which I do clean and check.

 

[sams dad]

Four .Two mains operated and two battery operated. I test them occasionally.

 

[Gerbil]

Got mains detectors and they do work.

But they should do really seeing as I fit fire alarms for a living

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Got mains detectors and they do work.

But they should do really seeing as I fit fire alarms for a living

Lest we forget...

Arundel fire station blaze - official report

AN INVESTIGATION into the cause of the fire which destroyed Arundel Fire Station has revealed that an electrical fault was to blame.
The blaze ripped through the building on October 25 and left officials red-faced after they were forced to admit that no smoke alarms were fitted in the building as they were not a requirement when the building was first built.

 

[ben andrews' girlfriend]

I have one outside my room, 2 by our front door, and 2 heatsensor ones in our kitchen - we test them all the time and they all work.

 

[Gully]

I now have three, nothing like affirmative action when a firefighter reminds you how important they are, two in the hall (one will be moved when I decide where to put it) and another upstairs just outside my bedroom.

 

[tedebear]

I like houses with wigs, but I could never live in one, have you seen how quickly they go up when something goes wrong? and then its at least £20k to get a new wig...glad there are people who don't mind though, but not for me!

 

[NMH]

I like houses with wigs, but I could never live in one, have you seen how quickly they go up when something goes wrong? and then its at least £20k to get a new wig...glad there are people who don't mind though, but not for me!

Er..... house with WIG??

I suppose you are talking thatched roof, but actually it wouldn't make much diff once a house goes up, except if you have to replace it with same.