Fire Drill - 90 secs to get out!

[jedi]

SCENARIO
You and your spouse are asleep in bedroom 1, your little ones are asleep in bedroom 2 and 3. You wake up at 2AM to the sound of the firealarm going off! A raging fire has started in your living room (POST FIRE REPORT: faulty wiring as somone overloaded the outlet with 4 plugs for the indoor seasonal lights). You only have 90 seconds to get out via the back door before the flames trap you inside.

Quick what do you do?
What do you take?
Are you prepared to walk out of the house 90 seconds after you wake up in your PJs?

----
Post what you would take with you (remember you only have 90 seconds).

THE POINT OF THIS POST IS TO GET YOU AND OTHERS THINKING ABOUT WHAT YOU NEED TO PREPARE FOR SOMETHING LIKE THIS.

Some will say take nothing since off-site (ie. your shed, a hole in the ground) they have abc, zyx supplies for this
Some will say I take my FireBag which has abc, xyz and go out the 2nd floor window via the fire ladder
Some will say I take my bacon stash!

The point is tell us what you will take & WHY so we can all learn and perhaps add abc or xyz to our own "plans/bags".

 

[BigMatt]

I love these topics. They really get me thinking.

 

[grimor]

I have an outside door in my bedroom so I'm all set. I have been thinking about this recently though since my backdoor sticks some times and my son can't always open it on his own. He knows what to do if the house alarm goes off and the difference between that and the fire alarm.

What would I take with me? not a damn thing

 

[eldirector]

This is one of the few scenerios that bugs me. Fires are way too common. Lots of smoke and CO detectors, though. The main one is hard-wired, with a back-up battery. I have fire extinguishers in several locations (both garages, kitchen, my office, and master bedroom).

Are we prepared? Kinda. We've talked about it a bunch, but never *really* practiced.

What would I take? My wife and daughter. Important docs are in fire-resistant safes, and everything else is just "stuff".

The drill:
- my wife calls 911 and heads straight out. Cell phone is on the nightstand.
- I head to my daughter's room. Through the house if possible. If not, then out our window (helping my wife out - it is on the 2nd floor). I'll re-enter through my daughter's window to get her.
- There is a small fire extinguisher by our bed (2-lb), and that would go with me. Either clear a path with it, or break out the windows.

 

[E5RANGER375]

fire blanket, fire extenguishers, smoke alarms, close the bedroom door & bust a window to get out.

 

[jedi]

I have an outside door in my bedroom so I'm all set. I have been thinking about this recently though since my backdoor sticks some times and my son can't always open it on his own. He knows what to do if the house alarm goes off and the difference between that and the fire alarm.

**sigh** "play" the scenario as it is written please.

What would I take with me? not a damn thing

Ok? So you are now standing outisde (minus spouse and 2 kids per scenario) in your PJs with nothing else. Now what?

fire blanket, fire extenguishers, smoke alarms, close the bedroom door & bust a window to get out.

These things are in your bedroom? Why take the smoke alarm?

 

[E5RANGER375]

**sigh** "play" the scenario as it is written please.



Ok? So you are now standing outisde (minus spouse and 2 kids per scenario) in your PJs with nothing else. Now what?



These things are in your bedroom? Why take the smoke alarm?

lol, dont take the smoke alarm (im just saying its a step in the process. you have smoke alarms. I would walk out the front or back door if possible, but if I saw fire in those directions then im out the windows.

whats so unbelievable about having that in a bedroom? you carry a first aid kit dont you?

also, if i had to bail out of the house with nothing, me and my family would be fully clothed and have cash and supplies in a matter of minutes. ever heard of a cache? its all about being prepared. I can assure you im more prepared for a fire, flood, earthquake, tornado, blizzard, robbery/home invasion, than I am for a zombie uprising. you can never be fully prepared for everything, but we would make it.

 

[Rayne]

My little ones are all grown and out of the house, but we had a fire plan that the kids still remember even after 25 years. In fact when they had friends over we always talked about the fire escape to their friends before bed. We have a two story house so in your scenerio if the fire was in the living room it would block our escape down the steps.

Our first route out of the house was down the steps and out the front door, if that didn't work then each room had it's own escape route to take.

The daughter's room has access to the garage roof and front porch roof. Her escape route was out on the roof and schimmy down a tree and our meeting place was on the next door neighbors front porch (aka Grandma's house).

The son's room had no natural escape route, so we placed the TV antenna tower next to his window. Wondered if this route would be used for anything else as he got older, but as far as we know it never was. Again son is to exit his room via the TV tower and meet at Grandma's front porch.

Hubby and I go out our bedroom window and onto the garage roof, down a FM Radio Antenna pole and then down to Granama's too. Now when the kiddos were real little, we each headed to a bedroom, retrieved the child and headed out their fire escape route. That was the plan, but I'm sure if at all possible even when the kids were older I would want to know they were out of the house first before I left myself.

Hubby is a Volunteer Fireman so there isn't much he woudl ever recommend stopping for. Our important papers are in a fireproof safe, computer farm records are backed up on a external hard drive and in the safe too. Not much in the world means that much to me to risk my life, hubby's life or a fireman's life to retrieve, except my family.

What scared me the most was when I realized our son wouldn't leave the house until he found his cat, who would be hiding in the basement if the smoke detector alarm was going off. We had a long talk and I hoped I had convienced him that he would never find a cat and he would be OK in the basement and son needed to get out of the house fast. Still gives me the chills to think that for years he wouldn't have left the house because of the cat before he told me this.

 

[jedi]

lol, dont take the smoke alarm (im just saying its a step in the process. you have smoke alarms. I would walk out the front or back door if possible, but if I saw fire in those directions then im out the windows.

whats so unbelievable about having that in a bedroom? you carry a first aid kit dont you?

also, if i had to bail out of the house with nothing, me and my family would be fully clothed and have cash and supplies in a matter of minutes. ever heard of a cache? its all about being prepared. I can assure you im more prepared for a fire, flood, earthquake, tornado, blizzard, robbery/home invasion, than I am for a zombie uprising. you can never be fully prepared for everything, but we would make it.

Nothing I updated my OP so you understand what/why I started this.
In your case you have items that I had not though about having in the bedroom (ie. fire extingusher).

In terms of your cache? Ok makes sense now why in your case would leave with nothing.

 

[E5RANGER375]

Nothing I updated my OP so you understand what/why I started this.
In your case you have items that I had not though about having in the bedroom (ie. fire extingusher).

In terms of your cache? Ok makes sense now why in your case would leave with nothing.

I would grab my BOB, because it would be on my way, but if I couldnt I would still be fine because of other preps I've made. I even keep a fire extinguisher in my vehicle and my garage


i think the key of usefull advice in my first post was closing the door BEFORE i busted out the window.

 

[jedi]

So what does your BOB have?

& why close the door before you bust out the window?

 

[CountryBoy19]

Ok, I'm not going to play this exactly how it's set... I'm going to play this as if I have children, in my existing home with my current practices.

First of all, I do have an exterior door on my bedroom, and on 2 of the other 3 bedrooms so no problem on my escape and hopefully the escape of the occupants of the other bedrooms. However, if there were a child in the 3rd bedroom, their only door-way escape route would be into the living room, which is ablaze according to the scenario.

So I've taken my flashlight (always by the bed) and I will grab the keys off the wall, right outside our bedroom door so I can ensure that the occupants of the other 2 bedrooms with exterior doors have made a safe exit. Then I will have to check the last bedroom, either by breaking out the front window, or entering through the front door, through the corner of the burning living room, and into that bedroom.


Cons/downfalls/etc of this scenario: I should keep a set of keys by the bed in case of this (that is something I will incorporate into future plans).
The bedroom with no exterior door is intended to be the "nursery" some day due to it's size, so that means that somebody is most definitely going to have to enter to evacuate the likely occupants (toddler/infant). This doesn't leave any good points of entry for a fire that has fully engulfed the living room area. Breaking a window would likely be the only option in this case. I need to consider some type of step to more easily get up into the window and something to break the window out. I should have grabbed a towel when I left my bedroom, too late now... what do I have so I don't cut myself? Nothing... I'm in my underwear... dang it...


Good scenario OP, there is no possession in my home worth grabbing except things that will be necessary for the immediate safety of my family. Which immediately means simply getting them out of the house. Shelter once out of the home is no problem, we have some of the best neighbors I have ever had before and they would take us in within minutes and take really good care of us in the meantime.

I'm in good company in my neighborhood. County Sheriff's Deputy on one side, criminal justice major turned to used car salesmen on the other (the really great neighbor), and BPD officer next-door to them.

 

[sbcman]

I would take nothing save for two kids under one arm and one under the other.

Oh- guess I better get my wife too.

I use to be a firefighter and you'd be surprised the stuff you see people getting out of a house when you roll up on them. I actually saw one dude go in his house and come back out with blankets. It was a cool night, so I guess he thought he would stay warm while outside.

I'm a preacher now, so I deal with getting folks out of whole different set of flames.

 

[E5RANGER375]

So what does your BOB have?

& why close the door before you bust out the window?

come to an MSG2 meeting and I will show you my BOB. im not gonna list it all here. its a practical BOB. also, as long as my garage doesnt catch fire I have the ability to start giving oxygen to my family and myself, as well as administer any blood stopping treatment ect. since I keep a pretty good BLS med kit in my garage too. my garage is seperate from my house and it would take high winds for the fire from my house to hit my garage. I wouldnt be touching the burns (if there were any) since the professionals would be there shortly and would attend to that. but my wife is a professional and i have dabbled a little in EMS

closing the door keeps fresh air from feeding the fire and causing a possible flare up or backdraft. im no fireman nor do I play one on TV, but I have been taught not to just start busting out windows in a structure thats on fire, unless its absolutely neccessary (like you are trying to get inside to rescue someone. the fire will reach towards the oxygen.

 

[BigMatt]

I was watching that show "Flying Wild Alaska" and there was a guy that they dropped off at his house in ANWR. The nearest road was something like 250 miles away and he had no power, running water etc...

The camera panned over to a big orange tent he had outside his cabin. He said it is insulated and has a bunch of supplies in it. The pilot asked what it was for and he basically said "If my house burns down and it is -50 degrees, I will need somewhere to go"

This stuff really gets you thinking.

 

[grimor]

**sigh** "play" the scenario as it is written please.

It's facing the back, so it's a "back door"

Ok? So you are now standing outisde (minus spouse and 2 kids per scenario) in your PJs with nothing else. Now what?

"what you would take with you" generally means material possession. I wait for the fire department to show up, I may move my vehicles away from the house if it seems safe enough and sit in one if it's cold out. Since I sleep in the buff, I may get my ho bag out of the trunk and toss on the clothes.

 

[FWShooter]

Don't have kids and do not like them so I would make sure to grab the gun bag and bug out bag by my bed, run out the back door, grab the bird, and when I get outside use the shooting ear protection to cover up their screams.

Everything else I need is in the fireproof safe and I have off site storage with back up emergency supplies.

 

[E5RANGER375]

Don't have kids and do not like them so I would make sure to grab the gun bag and bug out bag by my bed, run out the back door, grab the bird, and when I get outside use the shooting ear protection to cover up their screams.

Everything else I need is in the fireproof safe and I have off site storage with back up emergency supplies.

 

[ATOMonkey]

Great... now I'm gonna have to stop sleeping nekkid.

 

[eldirector]

Great... now I'm gonna have to stop sleeping nekkid.

Why? At least give the responding firemen a thrill (or chuckle).