You would be better focusing your attention on how to prevent fires, 99.99% of which are entirely avoidable.

 

We have smoke alarms in every room & never use lighted candles.

 

we dont have a plan really, we only have one way out which is the front door

no idea how i would get the fuffs out

we just have to try to prevent it, the only thing we leave on when we go out/to bed is the fridge, everything else is turned off

 

if there was a fire there would be nothing i can do anyway.
i have 27 rats in 8 seperate cages, some hate being handled and are nervous, so catching them would be impossible, same as carrying the cages out.
if i was in enough time to reach them would be able to carry out the hammys cage.

 

You would be better focusing your attention on how to prevent fires, 99.99% of which are entirely avoidable.

That's obvious, but you cannot totally prevent fire - if you have neighbours attached to you then a fire could start with them & spread to your home very quickly, there are plenty of things that are unpreventable so I think it is still very wise to think through a plan just in case.

For instance, I live in a semi detached house and the lady in the adjoining house is nearly 100 years old, lives alone and suffers from dementia, she regularly puts things in the oven in the middle of the night (including things that should NOT be in the oven) and goes back to bed. Nothing we can do about that, we just have to hope that her carers (she has carers visiting 24 hours a day, every couple of hours, plus family through the day) visit regularly enough to stop something like that from happening or turning into a disaster. IMO I think this lady should be in a care home, but her family don't want her to, which is understandable from their point of view, but as the person that has to live on the other side of the wall to her, I would much rather she was in a home, as terrible as it sounds!

So it's for reasons like that, plus the fact that I am a natural worrier (especially given what happened when I was younger) that I am inclined to worry about it whether I want to or not - and I am very conscious about preventing fires. At the moment I live with my parents so I can't really go around unplugging everything at night but I am moving into my own house in the next few weeks and I will be making sure everything is switched off at the socket at night time as it is a big personal worry for me - plus I am moving into a terraced house so I also feel responsible for preventing fire for my two neighbours sakes, as well as my own.

 

strangely that is something I worry about too. I only have two guinea pigs (and the dog) I know If I was able to get out the dog could follow but as for my guinea pigs I would be worried I couldn't get them both I wouldn't probably end up dying myself trying to get them out, I couldn't leave them behind.


it's all very well saying 99.99 % are preventable, but you could say this about anything. these things sometimes happen no matter how careful you are

 

if there was a fire there would be nothing i can do anyway.
i have 27 rats in 8 seperate cages, some hate being handled and are nervous, so catching them would be impossible, same as carrying the cages out.
if i was in enough time to reach them would be able to carry out the hammys cage.

I know when I had the small fire in my kitchen, the first thing I did (after opening the side door) was really quickly try to do some fire-proofing for the animals. Luckily the dog was in the garden anyway, so I just quickly shut the back door to make sure he couldn't get in, then shut the living room door and blocked it with dishcloths and coats as best I could, as we had two parrots in the living room, which are very sensitive to smoke. I had my little mouse upstairs and I wanted to go up and put her cage outside but I knew the fire probably wouldn't have chance to spread before the fire brigade arrived - and by this time, i'd left the house and the neighbours had come out and were yelling at me not to go back in

But if there was to be a serious fire now - I couldn't get my gerbil out as she is in a big glass tank and she isn't hand tame so I couldn't catch her. I keep a travel box on top of the hammies cage so could probably shove him in the box quickly enough if I was upstairs. I don't have anything to hand for the parrots though... once I move, I am going to keep something under the parrots cage that I could quickly put her into if needed.

 

i already have a small hamster cage and 4 carriers on top of one of the cages, but actually getting the rats into it, even the ones who dont mind being handled would be a huge feat. when i decide to bath the boys and do all of them it takes about an hour to get all of the out the cages.

 

I always think about it. I'm pretty sure the cats would of run off anyway but in case I'd open some windows and quickly check for any still in. The bunnies are outside so they would be fine and I'd just grab willow, make sure my family are out and get out of the nearest exit. But before I'd exit I'd run into the living room to get mungos ashes.

 

We have smoke alarms all over the house.. OH does the rounds every night before bed checking nothing has been left on that might cause problems.

We only use extension cords with a safety mark, dont use candles, never leave side lights, christmas tree lights ect on if we are out of the room.
Never go out if the dishwasher , dryer or washer is on.

Prevention is the way to go however if the worst did happen we do have a plan in place and two ways of exiting from the upstairs..

I do fear for Basil though because he is downstairs although his cage is near to the garden doors...

 

Nothing in place here but we live in a bungalow and only have the two dogs now. I always have at least one slip lead by the door, key for the back door is always in a drawer next to it and front door doesn't need keys to open from inside.

Dogs would most likely kick up a fuss if for any reason not on the bedrooms with us.

 

It is pointless worrying about things over which you have no control as whether you do or not will not change things!

Focus your energy on what you CAN control and remove unecessary stress from your life.

Worrying about things that MAY happen is a waste of time and worrying about them AFTER they happen is too late.

Dear heaven above, I am a H & S professional, you plan, prepare and, when you have done everything that is reasonably practicable, you sit back.

I do not always think about fire, death, destruction, car crashes, life is here to enjoy and I plan to.

 

We live in an ikkle one bedroomed cottage. It only had a back door which worried me no end so I got a builder to take a window out at the other end of the cottage and put in a patio door. Some of the windows were only top opening so had the ones in the dogs room altered so they open sideways. Luckily the kitchen doesnt have access to the outside so when it went on fire (hubbies fault) we werent trapped.
I stopped going into a newly opened well known department store as I couldnt find my way out from the upstairs floor and couldnt see any signs for emergency exits. Mentioned it to a member of staff but havent been back to see if things have changed.

 

The rabbits are outside. The guinea pigs are right beside the emergency window but whether I could get the cage out or not I don't know. 2 of the dogs would follow or at least find their own way out, it'd be Ben I worry about the most as he's 15 now and heavy. Xx

 

Nothing in place here but we live in a bungalow and only have the two dogs now. I always have at least one slip lead by the door, key for the back door is always in a drawer next to it and front door doesn't need keys to open from inside.

Dogs would most likely kick up a fuss if for any reason not on the bedrooms with us.

Most modern doors need keys to open them.I leave mine in the locks overnight and to hell with the burglary risk...I've been in a house fire...and believe me the last thing you are able to do when choking on black smoke is find a key and a keyhole while panicking and trying to breathe.

Getting to a door isn't the important thing...it's getting through it.

 

The rabbits are outside. The guinea pigs are right beside the emergency window but whether I could get the cage out or not I don't know. 2 of the dogs would follow or at least find their own way out, it'd be Ben I worry about the most as he's 15 now and heavy. Xx

What about the penguins... Someone please think of the penguins !!!!:lol:

 

I stopped going into a newly opened well known department store as I couldnt find my way out from the upstairs floor and couldnt see any signs for emergency exits. Mentioned it to a member of staff but havent been back to see if things have changed.

If you have a concern like that, you are much better off writing to either the store director for that store, or to the company's head office - or preferably both! Mentioning it to a sales assistant or any member of staff on shop floor level won't make a difference - they won't pass it on to management and believe me, management do not listen to the staff anyway - which is why we don't usually bother passing on complaints from customers. Either that, or we completely forget, I am lucky to see my manager 2 or 3 times a week in passing, so a customer complaint (which is all we ever hear, minor whinges and complaints just go straight over my head now) is unlikely to be the first thing I remember.

You could also try perhaps calling the council, i'm sure they would be in a position to send someone out to check it over.

It is pointless worrying about things over which you have no control as whether you do or not will not change things!

Focus your energy on what you CAN control and remove unecessary stress from your life.

Worrying about things that MAY happen is a waste of time and worrying about them AFTER they happen is too late.

Dear heaven above, I am a H & S professional, you plan, prepare and, when you have done everything that is reasonably practicable, you sit back.

I do not always think about fire, death, destruction, car crashes, life is here to enjoy and I plan to.

When I say I worry about it, I don't mean it keeps me up at night or that I spend hours and hours mulling it over, it's just something that pops into my mind from time to time... no worry of any unnecessary stress around here

I just think it is useful to have a plan IF it happens, and that's what I am asking on this thread - I am not asking whether or not I am correct to think about it, and on the off chance that I do want to "waste time" thinking about it - look on the bright side, it's MY time I am wasting, not yours and perhaps one day (hopefully not), the time I "wasted" thinking of some sort of plan in case of a fire could very well save either my own life of the lives of my animals, which IMO makes it time well spent, not wasted.

 

Most modern doors need keys to open them.I leave mine in the locks overnight and to hell with the burglary risk...I've been in a house fire...and believe me the last thing you are able to do when choking on black smoke is find a key and a keyhole while panicking and trying to breathe.

Getting to a door isn't the important thing...it's getting through it.

Like I said, front door doesn't need a key to be opened from inside. Back door is a full hight pane of glass and you can see the key is in the door from the outside, will never ever leave the key in that door. Not when dog theft alone is so high and I have two pedigree dogs. Plus I have a back door key on my set specifically so I can get in through the back, if a key is in the door no one can get in from outside (don't like to only have one way, ie. front door into the house).

At the end of the day you could climb out of all of the windows here, there are french doors on the dining room and the bedrooms are all at the front of the house near the front door as opposed to the back.

 

Most modern doors need keys to open them.I leave mine in the locks overnight and to hell with the burglary risk...I've been in a house fire...and believe me the last thing you are able to do when choking on black smoke is find a key and a keyhole while panicking and trying to breathe.

Getting to a door isn't the important thing...it's getting through it.

With modern doors (i'm thinking the UPVC type), it's easier for a burglar to just kick them through rather than fiddle with the lock as they are just plastic, and the locks aren't as easy to 'pick' as the old style doors.

However, if you are in the house or if it is broad daylight, it'd be pretty obvious if a burglar was kicking your door in, so usually they don't bother. A lot of them are opportunists nowadays and just try the handles and hope people have forgotten to lock their doors. Last year, my dad left his car unlocked over night on the drive and an opportunist broke in and took a load of his walking gear. Funnily enough, I couldn't sleep that night - I never heard anyone going through the car (although if the doors were unlocked, he could have quietly opened them and he left them open, so obviously I didn't hear the doors slamming or anything) but I DO remember being convinced i'd heard someone trying the handle on our side door. I thought nothing of it and kept trying to get to sleep, but since it was the same night (and around the same time, we think) then I am convinced that the car thief was trying his luck to see if were had been even more stupid and left the house unlocked.

 

I am convinced that the car thief was trying his luck to see if were had been even more stupid and left the house unlocked.

At our old house 'they' (ne'er-do-wells) tried our doors on a regular basis. The only way you'd know they had been is if you were awake and heard them, or by footprints in next doors veg patch, or by checking CCTV - all the homeowners on that road had it pointing at their door, we were the only renters so never bothered. The houses are on a private service road separated with mature trees from the main road on the edge of town, and all houses are detached so they could take their time wondering around there and not be easily spotted.

Our fire plan is I am responsible for Tillie and Hubby is responsible for Dusty. We unplug everything, clean the lint out the dryer after every use, and test our smoke alarms along with our CO2 alarm weekly. Luckily we have plenty of doors and windows that open really wide.

p.s - any news on your move T??

 

Our fire plan is I am responsible for Tillie and Hubby is responsible for Dusty. We unplug everything, clean the lint out the dryer after every use, and test our smoke alarms along with our CO2 alarm weekly. Luckily we have plenty of doors and windows that open really wide.

p.s - any news on your move T??

I'd never think to clean the lint out of the dryer, will bear that in mind also i'm not sure if my new house has smoke alarms (never noticed when looking round) so they might be a worthy investment - I think our fire station do free fire assessments for your home and will fit smoke alarms for free so if they are still doing it then I might give them a ring when I move in, see if I can get some good smoke alarms fitted.

I should hopefully be getting a moving date at the end of next week :thumbup: I was getting a bit worried because i'd heard nothing since Christmas until this week, so I gave the solicitors a call & a kick up the backside on Tuesday and lo and behold, things are moving again!

I was gonna update the thread I made but i'll leave it until I know a date I just want to get moved in now! Getting bored of waiting

 

Well, I've got my tumble drier and washing machine in the cellar only 1 foot from the door down there so if they had caught fire, the fireman would be able to pull them out at least out of the way of the house with a ladder. Having said that, if anything does go wrong with them they usually turn off. The drier has this habit of turning off its heating element if I haven't put the tube properly out of the cat flap so the steam can escape.
Apart from that, I only have one front door and the keys are hung up there on a hook high enough so burglars can't see or reach them, but I can reach them just above my arms length. I have a smoke alarm upstairs and downstairs.

 

I do think about this sometimes..
We don't have a plan in place, but I hope that since Molly is by my side all the time, it would be pretty easy for me just to grab her and go...

The only problem I would have is keys.. im always putting them somewhere random in the house and forgetting...

 

With modern doors (i'm thinking the UPVC type), it's easier for a burglar to just kick them through rather than fiddle with the lock as they are just plastic, and the locks aren't as easy to 'pick' as the old style doors.

That's why my back door that is hidden from the main road has this fitted for when I'm out all day...and it's covered by CCTV.I wouldn't use it at night when a quick exit might be needed though.

 

Glad you got a moving date!!

Hubby is a Firefighter in his 'spare time' (whatever that is lol) and he said the main things that start drier fires is when the lint filter hasn't been cleared. Go do it now Tigerneko!! Please update your house thread when you have more news
If you ring your local station when you are in they should send round the fire prevention peeps, I know our station keep a stock of smoke alarms in that they take and fit. They will also talk through with you a good plan and maybe set your mind at rest a bit - i.e by telling you average turn out times for your area.


Sorry Wiz but they prob wouldn't pull out a drier or washer that was on fire, they would prob just water it. I think the only thing hubby has pulled out of a burning house apart from people and pets, is boxes of photos if it's looking like things are going to get worse before they get better.