Field View Electrical Ltd News Page

Reacting to a smoke Alarm

Remember:

• Get out!
• Stay out!
• Dial 999 and call the Fire Service out!

When they are at work most people know the actions to take when the fire alarm sounds, they know the route to take out of the building and where to gather together outside so that fire marshals can check registers to see that everyone is accounted for. At no time would you consider deviating from this route and going to look for the fire.
At home the story is often very different with sometimes fatal consequences.
When at home we can get used to the alarm going off while someone is cooking, but what do people do when the alarm sounds at 2 o'clock in the morning?
Often people will go and look to see WHY the alarm is sounding. They may even open the door to the room with the fire in, and that action will allow the fire to spread quickly around the house.
The only way to react to a smoke alarm at home at night is to:

• get up,
• get everyone in the house together,
• leave the building by the quickest route, usually down the stairs and out of the front door,
• dial 999 and ask for the Fire Service.

If you follow the above advice you will survive a fire.
It seems simple doesn't it? Yet still people are killed and injured in fires every day.
Some people go to investigate why the alarm is sounding, they can end up opening a door to a fire which can quickly spread around the whole house and either trap them inside or cut off them off from the stairs so they can't get back to where children are asleep.
Some people manage to leave the house safely and then go back in, either to save possessions or pets and they end being killed or injured. Pets almost always leave the building without the owner realising and virtually all your possessions will be replaced by your house insurance.