It is smart fire safety but something that is easily forgotten.
A fire ripped through an apartment in the Bronx last week, killing 17 people, nine of them children. Open doors and not having working smoke alarms are partly to blame.
Quinte West Fire Prevention Officer Sarah Scott says closing doors while you sleep is a small but potentially life saving measure you can make in the event of a fire.
“I read a statistic recently that 50% of fire deaths occur between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. and that’s likely because people aren’t closing their bedroom door when they go to sleep. So we’re looking to make a behavioural change in people where they close that door because, not only is it creating a safe haven for the people inside that bedroom, it’s buying more time for firefighters as well if you’re in a safe area.”
Scott says she remembers a house fire recently where the door to the master bedroom was shut, containing the fire in the one room. She says this cuts the fire off from getting fresh oxygen as well as more fuel to keep the fire burning.
“The couple closed their bedroom door, escaped, got their kids out, and when I went in to investigate, other than light smoke damage, the entire home was completely fine. That bedroom was a write-off, it was completely black, drywall burned up, bed completely gone; but I could have walked into the kids room and the kid could have slept in there aside from the smoke damage. It was amazing.”
Scott recommends not only bedroom doors be shut, but doors in homes and multi-storey residences leading to the laundry room be shut too. She says dryer fires are very common and shutting the laundry room door can help prevent a fire from ripping through an entire home.
Recent studies show homes can burn in as little as eight minutes and in rural areas it can take anywhere from eight to ten minutes for the first fire truck to show up on scene.
She also reminds people to make sure there are working smoke alarms on every level of the home and for added protection in each bedroom. Working carbon monoxide detectors are also important as early warning devices in your home.
