Close the bedroom door before you sleep
A closed bedroom door kept a test fire’s heat under 100°F. Shut it tonight, test the smoke alarm, and make a plan your kids can follow.
From firefighters, fire-safety educators and parents who had planned for a house fire, checked against UL's Fire Safety Research Institute, US federal fire guidance and the London Fire Brigade — the wildfire-survival arguments in the same conversations were left for a different page.
If your bedroom door stays open at night — for air, or to hear a child — this page is about that door. Many people say the same thing about surviving a house fire, and it costs nothing: shut the door before you go to sleep.
Close the bedroom doors before you go to sleep, and test your smoke alarm this week.
What a closed door does
The fire researchers at UL’s Fire Safety Research Institute in the United States ran a full-scale fire in a ranch-style house to find out, with some bedroom doors shut and some open. The rooms behind closed doors stayed, on average, under 100°F. The room with the open door went past 1,000°F, and its carbon monoxide rose to a level the researchers call extremely toxic. They called the campaign that came out of it “Close Before You Doze”.
The reason matters, because it changes what you do. Smoke and hot gas are what kill people in house fires more than the flames, one caution here says — and the carbon monoxide in that open-door test room shows why. A door is a wall across their path. Behind it you have air that is still breathable and heat you can survive for longer — time for the alarm to wake you, for you to choose a way out, or for firefighters to reach you. One person notes that modern homes are full of plastics and petroleum-based materials that give off highly toxic smoke, and the Fire Safety Research Institute says the same: modern furnishings and open layouts spread fire faster and leave less time to get out. The US federal preparedness site puts it at a fire becoming life-threatening in two minutes. One person adds that the old fire-safety slogans have not caught up with that research on doors.
For parents, the researchers make it personal: if you close your children’s doors when you go to bed, you have already bought them more time before anything happens. And when you escape, close every door you go through behind you.
The alarm that works, and the one that does not
Some people say it bluntly: a smoke alarm that does not work is one of the ways people die in house fires. The US Fire Administration’s rule is to test each alarm once a month with its test button, to replace a 9-volt battery at least once a year, and to replace the whole alarm every ten years — they wear out. It says to put alarms inside and outside every bedroom and on every level, high on a wall or on the ceiling, and to choose alarms that are linked, so when one sounds they all sound. A smoke alarm with a dead or missing battery, it says, is the same as no smoke alarm at all. For anyone who is deaf or hard of hearing, there are alarms that flash or vibrate.
If you cannot afford alarms, ask. Some people say that in the UK your local fire and rescue service will do a free home fire safety visit, and UK fire services confirm it: they check your home, give you advice on an escape plan, and can fit alarms — including ones for people who are hard of hearing. Who qualifies differs by area, and it often includes older people, people who live alone and people with limited mobility. In the United States, the US Fire Administration says some fire departments give smoke alarms free or at reduced price; call your local fire department’s non-emergency number and ask. One person here doubts that fire departments are funded for it — which is why the answer is to ask, not to assume.
The plan
Two ways out of every room — the door and, usually, a window — and a place to meet outside, in front of the house. That is the US Fire Administration’s plan, and people add what makes it real rather than a drawing on the fridge.
Test it with your hands. Some people say escape plans fail in practice because the window is painted shut or locked, or the ladder is still in its box — the questions below go through the window, the ladder and the jump. Keep the keys where everyone can find them, the London Fire Brigade says: on a hook behind a curtain, or in a box on the window sill.
Know the door check. Before you open a closed door in a fire, feel the door and the handle with the back of your hand; if it is hot, or smoke is coming round it, do not open it, and use the other way out. One person’s correction explains the back of the hand: it is more sensitive to heat than the palm, and you need your palms. Get down low, where the air is clearer, the London Fire Brigade says; one person here explains that heat and smoke fill a room from the ceiling down. One firefighter warns you not to waste time reading the smoke for signs of an explosion; by the time those signs are visible, you are already in danger. The door check is enough.
If you are trapped, do not hide in an inside room with no way out. The London Fire Brigade’s advice is to get into a room with a window and, if you can, a phone. Close the door, push bedding or towels against the gap at the bottom, open the window, and shout. Signal at the window with a light-coloured cloth or a flashlight, the US federal preparedness site says. Tell the emergency operator which room you are in.
Once you are out, stay out. One of the questions below covers going back in for someone, because it is the hardest part of this page.
Who this page is not for
If you live in a block of flats or a high-rise, the plan can be different from a house, and your building’s fire plan and your local fire service are the ones to follow, not this page. If you live where wildfires or bushfires come, people have a lot to say about sheltering from one, much of it contested and some of it dangerous if misapplied indoors, and none of it is carried on this page; your local fire authority’s plan is the one to follow, and one person here stresses the part of it about leaving early. And if what you need is the fire in front of you right now, stop reading and get out.
The door you close tonight does its work while you sleep.
Common questions
How do I make an escape plan my children will actually follow?
Parents and firefighters get specific here, because children do not act like adults in a fire. One person found that children remember the general facts — no water on an oil fire — without knowing the one thing they themselves should do, which is get out and close the door behind them; teach the action, not the fact. So ask rather than tell: have them explain their plan back to you, and name the thing in their room they would use to break a window. One person warns that a young child's idea of a safe place can be a closet, which is worth finding out and clearing up; another says children who hide in closets or toy boxes during a fire are found too late. The US federal preparedness site says the same: teach children not to hide from firefighters. One person adds a way to make that easier: show them what a firefighter looks and sounds like in full gear, so the person coming to get them is not frightening. Some people add a promise to make out loud: they will not be in trouble for breaking a window or a lamp to get out, because an anxious child may freeze rather than break something. One person's plan includes a meeting point with trusted neighbours, who will take the children and call for help if the parents cannot. One person suggests a whistle for a child who might be trapped; another says a child stuck in a room can throw toys or pillows out of the window to show where they are, and must not then stand right under that window. Now the drills. Some people recommend surprise drills — setting the alarm off while the children sleep — because minds go blank in a real emergency and practice is what gets through that. Some people warn the other way: an unannounced drill at three in the morning can frighten a child badly. Some people's answer is to start with announced drills and build up, and one person warns never to start with a surprise drill for an anxious child. One person suggests turning drills into a game, and letting children invite a friend to practise. The US Fire Administration suggests running the drill by setting off the smoke alarm, and the federal preparedness site suggests practising twice a year. This page does not cover how to help a child with severe anxiety or autism through this; ask your child's doctor or your local fire service.
What about the ladder, the window and the jump?
Unbox the ladder. Some people point out that escape ladders tend to stay sealed in their packaging until the night they are needed, and one person warns it flatly: a sealed ladder may not open in time. Take it out, read the instructions, and know how it hooks over the sill. Some people say to test the whole plan, not just own it: the window you are counting on may be painted shut, locked, or blocked by furniture. One person points out that basement escape windows sometimes have locks that defeat the purpose, and another that metal window grates in a city flat can leave one way out. Keep a hammer or something heavy near a window you might need to break, one person says; clear anything sharp or hard from the ground below it, another adds; and one person warns look out before you break it so the glass does not come down on a firefighter below. Jumping is where people argue. Two say jumping beats dying of smoke, especially for someone who cannot manage a ladder; others say the fall breaks legs and arms, and one person points out even a height people think is a safe drop is too far to fall without injury. Their decider is age, fitness, the height, and whether a working ladder is actually there. Older people come off worst from falls, some people say — though another points out that plenty of older people can climb down a ladder, so do not decide for them. The UK's London Fire Brigade gives the rule for the window: from the ground or first floor you may be able to get out that way, but do not jump — put bedding or something soft below to cushion you, and lower yourself down carefully. One person adds: do not throw your arms out to break a fall; that is how arms snap. And one person's rule for a household member who cannot manage stairs or a ladder is that they sleep on the ground floor.
Can I go back in for someone?
The fire services' rule is no — once you are out, stay out; the London Fire Brigade puts it as never go back into the building. Some people explain why: going in blind makes you one more person for the firefighters to find, and some people, going on what firefighters say, call re-entry into a burning house suicide. One person here gives the reason in plain words: fire changes fast, and a small fire can fill a room in under a minute. Another explains that carbon monoxide confuses you, so that simple things like unlocking a door become hard, and one person warns smoke can make you nearly pass out where you stand. Those some people describe one exception, and it is theirs, not the fire services': only if you can see the person clearly, and, one exchange adds, never into thick or black smoke. Without a clear sight of them, one person says, going in is fatal. What helps instead: bang on the doors and windows to wake people, call the emergency number, count everyone outside, and tell the firefighters the moment they arrive exactly who is missing and which room they sleep in. That is information they can act on.
Where do the carbon monoxide alarms go?
Outside the bedrooms. The US Environmental Protection Agency says install a carbon monoxide alarm in the hallway near every separate sleeping area. One person’s correction is worth having: carbon monoxide is not heavier than air and does not pool on the floor. It weighs almost the same as air and mixes through a room, so the alarm does not need to sit low — follow the instructions that come with it, one person says. Unless it is a combined alarm, a smoke alarm does not detect carbon monoxide and a carbon monoxide alarm does not detect smoke, so if anything in your home burns fuel — a boiler, a gas cooker, a fire, a car in an attached garage — it is worth having both.
Should I try to put the fire out myself?
Only a small one, and only with your way out behind you. One person's line is a fire no bigger than a waste-paper basket; anything bigger, leave. Some people recommend a hands-on extinguisher lesson, which some fire services run, and one person gives the reason: people who have never used one panic and use it wrong — one person warns an extinguisher is not a grenade to throw. There is a page here on choosing and using one, *Give the fire extinguisher*, and one on the pan that catches fire in the kitchen, *Slide the lid over the pan*. If your clothes catch fire, the federal preparedness site's instruction is stop, drop to the ground, cover your face with your hands, and roll over and over until the fire is out.
Questions this step helps with
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