Fire Safety Alert: Sleep With Your Doors Closed – See Why.

Being a Mum it is so hard to sleep with the bedroom doors closed, because you’re always listening out to hear if the kids are waking up, or calling for help during the night, but seeing this completely changed my perspective.

Unfortunately, house fires aren’t rare, on average the US have 354 thousand per year and in the UK there are on average 40 thousand call outs. The majority of residential fires are related to cooking, although heating problems, carelessness, and electrical malfunctions also generate a number of fires each year. Although there are many things we can do to prevent a fire from starting, it’s also important to know what to do in the event that one happens.

Firstly, each household should have an emergency fire plan. This plan should highlight different scenarios and escape routes throughout every room in the house. Every fire plan should also involve a meeting spot once everyone is safely outside. It’s also of upmost importance that you have working fire and carbon monoxide detectors throughout your home. One or two smoke alarms are not enough — you should have one in almost every room in the house, and your city’s building code will inform you of how many each home should have.

Another important thing each household should have is one or two fire extinguishers. Even if you don’t end up personally ever needing to use one, they could come in handy for a neighbor who may not have one on hand. And now, we’re going to discuss another thing you should do in regards to house fires — and that’s sleeping with your bedroom door closed.

The Today Show conducted a house fire simulation in which they tested two bedrooms. One of the bedrooms had the door closed, while the other bedroom door was left open. It was shown that sleeping with your bedroom door closed can massively increase your risk of survival during a fire. The door acts as a barrier between smoke and fire, having it closed can buy you more time to escape if this were ever to happen to you.

Watch the video below to see the difference between the two rooms used in the fire simulation. The results are quite astonishing. It’s something a lot of people forget about, and it should really be the first thing we think about in the home. So please take something from watching this today and make your homes more fire safe.