General Chat

Suzanne That must have been a terrifying ordeal. You are right. Fire can be so quick. Some will have read my recent threads about a school fire. The whole place was gutted in no time. Preliminary thoughts are that the cause was electrical, in the roof space. It is good to have these informative threads. It makes us think about our own precautions and escape routes but like you say, we just have to get out- and stay out. Gwyn

Double Galzing in Fire Situations. It will melt once the temperature gets high enough, however, if the temperature is high enough to melt UPVC then you would not be able to enter that room anyway. A smoke alarm correctly fitted will detect that fire long before the glazing bars melt. By the way a smoke alarm should be fitted at least 12 inches away from any wall. I have seen dozens of melted smoke alarms, they will melt in a severe fire but that will be long after they have given out their warning, I'm not saying that it was so in Suzannes case but a lot of the smoke alarms that I have seen melted did not have a battery in them anyway. Now back to double glazing, the main problem with double glazing is not the fact that it melts in a severe fire but in the early stages of fire it might be your only way out of the building, it's quite possible that the window is not designed to open and you will have to break the glazing to get out, here lies the problem. If you hit a double glazed window with a solid object the chances are that the object will bounce off the glass and not break it, this is caused by the gap in between the glass panes, it acts as a cushion, the glass bends rather breaks because of this, if you have to break double glazing hit the glass pane in the corner, not in the middle, the glass is held more rigidly in the corners and will break when struck. I believe you can by a little hammer type thingy, the type you see on coaches, for home use. Ron www*genealogyprinters*com

I agree with all the points that Ron has made my husband is an ex subofficer in the firebrigade and one of the things that used to upset him most and atill does is when young children are trapped in a blazing house His nickname was the gentle giant because he once rescued at tiny baby form a house fire and gave her cardiac massage with his thumb She grew up to be a fine young lady and came to his retirement party to say thankyou we are now elderly but have a smoke alarm fitted it always goes off when i am grilling sausauge or pork chops and the window at the top of the stairs is a tilt and turn so in event of fire we would be able to get out onto the carport roof bren

another thing. not sure if this is like it all over the country, but is in west yorkshire. If you are over a certain age, the firebrigade will replcae your old chip pan with a deep fat fryer, and if an electric blanket is over 20 years old they will replace that with a new one too. There are also smoke alarms in which the battery lasts for 10 years.... However, check your smoke alarm once a week, as the advert says, if your battery doesn't work, you don;t have a smoke alarm. Push the button, not your luck!

Thankyou for this thread Liz it has certainly made me think, Cazxxxxxxx

If anyone has learned anything from this thread, then I am glad I posted it, we don't want to hear of any tragedies on here. Please all try to spread the word to your friends and neighbours too, if you teach your children, tell them to talk to their friends as well. Just chatting to someone about these points might turn out to be a life saver later on. Stay safe all of you, and thanks everyone for your input especially Ron. Liz

Would like to keep this nudged for a while to make sure everyone sees it and takes note. Liz

A really useful thread Liz and greatly appreciated. AL