Fire escape ladders/ropes/descenders/ ...

Smoke alarms should get you out before that stage, but you could also consider sprinklers over the escape route.

Owain

Escape from 1st floor only or higher?

One assumes you have working and correctly placed smoke alarms and a telephone upstairs. How long will it take the fire and rescue service to get to you? How close are your neighbours, have you their phone numbers?

As you say rope (wire) ladders are awkward things even for the agile.

Thinking that as a closed domestic door will keep fire at bay for quite a number of minutes and block the jam and floor gap with whatever cloth is available (wet if possible) to keep the smoke and fumes out (the real killers). Calling 999 and sitting tight maybe the better bet if they'll be with you in less than 10 minutes.

No good here, the local, retained, fire and rescue pump would take about fifteen minutes to arrive, by which time the place will be "well alight". If a house catches fire outside of the town around here the chances are it'll burn down. The next nearest pumps are 1/2 to 3/4 of a hour away.

If only from the first floor climb out of the window, lower yourself full stretch of your arms, give a little push away from the wall and drop. Feet to ground won't be much over 6', bend the knees roll out of the fall, should getaway with just bruises. Plan ahead have a border rather than something hard below escape windows.

Call the neighbours, get them to come and "catch" you from the arms stretched position.

Keep a roll of gaffer tape in your escape room to save having to stuff wet towels or what ever around the door. But be aware that it'll burn through with hot gases quicker than a wet towel...

Fit a proper 30 min fire door and frame with bush and intumastic seals to your escape room.

Is there any special reason you expect the stairs to become impassable quickly - eg are they open plan to the kitchen and living areas?

If not, FWLIW my conclusion was that if I reach the point where interlinked smoke alarms don't give me enough time to get down the stairs and out then it's time to start sleeping downstairs.

Fire alarms to make sure you are awake.

Depending on the layout, a hose pipe in the bathroom suitably attached could be helpful, as could some fire resistant clothing.

Smoke alarms are fitted but it's not big enough to justify sprinklers.

Thanks, I hadn't seen those and they look interesting.

I guess it would take 30+ minutes for the fire brigade to get here; no neighbours near enough to help.

This has to work for family and friends, and when we're older - I don't think "dangle and drop" is an option.

Perhaps, if I was planning to replace doors and linings (but I'm not)

No, it's a direction from SWMBO ;-)

Contact your local fire and rescue and ask them to pop round and offer advice. They will do and I think it is free.

That's an interesting idea - it would be quite easy to keep a length of flexible pipe in a cupboard.

Agreed, IMHO good smoke detectors should give very early warning. Also, you just get up and go. No need to worry about deployment of something potentially awkward, unless you are in an ideal situation with a crash bar door straight on to a metal fire escape.

AS advertised on Farcebook recently

The demo assumes no up-draft from a fire - nor as a result of prevailing winds hitting the building.

You are parachuted through a cladding fire - I hope all components are fire proof.

It may work for one individual but for many using similar at the same time?

snipped-for-privacy@aolbin.com was thinking very hard :

A self closing fire door or doors, on bedrooms, seem the only sensible answer, combined with a linked fire alarm system. Then await the fire brigades arrival for rescue.

I have double plaster boarded ceilings to ground floor, linked fire alarms and one (unused) bedroom at the rear with a fire door.

Hmmm, that's almost base jumping. It might be OK from a tall building but not from the 1st floor. If I was young again then kite surfing and base jumping would be on the "must do" list - I'm not going to be young again so I'm safe saying that ;-)

Here's a base jump from Angel falls, skip to the action at 50 seconds:

Have you considered an inflatable slide, like the emergency evacuation slides from aircraft? I don't know if they're available for domestic situations, nor if they're fireproof, nor how much space they occupy folded up, but perhaps worth a thought.

The bathroom is my planned escape route, if the stairs cannot be used. It has a large flat roof outside the window, a five foot drop, at the back of the house.

Bungalow ?.

But if the sink and other stuff is against the window then you need to be quite agile to get out through the window, so maybe keep a small set of kitchen steps in the bathroom.

Helter skelter?

It's the door at the bottom of the stairs that needs to be a fire door, and closed when you go to bed, so you have a safe exit route down to your front door.

If that is not possible then the kitchen needs to be a fire compartment in its own right so it can be isolated easily.

And don't forget fire and smoke hoods on downlighters else your double-layer ceilings are pointless.