And thinking about it our nearest neighbours, 1/4 mile away, could take longer than the retained pump to arrive, especially in the wee small hours of the morning.
But as a last resort as the door starts to leak too much smoke and fumes or the same coming up through the floorboards...
Reading the thread, working, linked, smoke/rate of rise/temperature alarms to give you early warning is probably the best bet. Coupled withgood buildings and contents insurance.
As the fire and rescue service say "Get out, Stay out, Get us Out".
Corded landline on your route out that you can grab as you pass with enough cable to be used from outside is a good idea.
I keep all my keys (front/back door, car) on a keyring that is always in my trouser pocket, together with my wallet and mobile phone, with my trousers close at hand at night. The reason I keep my keys on/near me is mainly so I don't lose them by absent-mindedly putting them down "somewhere"; the benefit for emergency situations is a bonus.
Hopefully in an emergency I'd either put my trousers on (if there was time) or at least grab them, and so have the means to open doors, call the emergency services, and move my car if that would make it easier for emergency vehicles (or if it put it out of range of the fire setting the fuel tank on fire, making a small fire bigger).
At least I wouldn't be faffing around trying to remember where each set of keys were.
That only works if there is a phone socket near the normal exit route (all our phone sockets are in a dead-end part of the house). For me, a mobile or a cordless phone that I can take with me as I flee the building is less risky.
Main thing: in the panic of an emergency, remember your postcode to direct the emergency services. And pray for a 999 operator who uses the information you give them rather than asking for other info that you don't have (*).
I would say that it's worth trying to put a fire blanket over a chip-pan fire, and at the very least turn the gas/electricity off that is heating the pan. And if it's a trivial fire (the stereotypical fire in a waste-paper bin or a coal ember that's spat out onto the hearth-rug) at least chuck a bit of water on it, because if it works, there'll be far less damage than if you wait for the fire brigade.
But... know when to quit after trying simple low-risk things.
(*) The worst example was when I called 999 on a motorway to report a crash on the other carriageway, and I gave the "M1 A 123.4" sign but the police operator kept asking "what's your postcode". Postcode, on a motorway? I offered to stop to read the info on one of the 100-metre marker posts, but the operator said she wouldn't know what to do with that information either. I emailed the police force when I got home because that was a lot of extra training needed. I had a reply saying they'd located the recording of the call, and I'd been very clear and concise in my location, but "more staff training was evidently needed to handle the information I'd given".
God isn't that stupid i can off my mobile give Lat Long and National grid to within 3 or 4 metres but some berk wanted the postcode broke down in the middle of nowhere.
Recovery bloke asked me to describe where i was and he knew where top come :)
Modern tech eh, who needs it!.
As to the marker posts i do remember seeing a large map of the M11 with those on in a breakdown office some time ago now..
Mobile signal is barely good enough to make a voice call here, even outside. My mobile automatically diverts to a VOIP number with the 'net connnection for that routed over the copper landline. The VOIP/DECT base, ADSL modem and ethernet switch are all on a UPS... Failing that the good 'ole powered from the exchange batteries POTS will work.
Fighting through a small hole from the relatively fresh air outside is not the same as being in a room with even a small fire.
Advantage of a landline (or VOIP number) is that you can register your address and that pops up on the 999 operators screen. When the call is passed to the requested service they get that and may also have a scheme linked to the number/address where you can say how to find that address. We have that additional information registered with the North West Ambulance Service, not sure if it's shared with Cumbria Fire and Rescue(*). Most sat navs plonk you in the middle of a field 1/2 a mile away when fed our postcode...
Or a *damp* tea towel.
That's always assuming you can get that close. TBH I don't how big the flames can get from a chip pan with a good source of heat going into it can get. I've only seen the small gentle flame just after flash over in the Public Infomation Films before the fire blanket/damp tea towel is deployed or just before the dramtic demonstration of adding water... Left on a highish heat for a minute or two after flash over I can imagine it will be getting a bit more hostile.
I wonder what causes most domestic fires these days, given that open coal fires aren't very common these days. B-) Smoking is probably still up there with electrical?
Oh yes, discretion is the better part of valour.
(*) But as the first pump to be called to us would be the local retained one, the chances are the crew will know where we are anyway. Indeed some of the crew will have to drive past us to get the pump... The same could be said for the local ambulance as well which is one of, if not the only, "retained" ambulance in the country. Ambulance or fire crews coming in wouldn't have that local knowledge so having it registered with them can only be a good thing.
Don't agree with that last with a fat fire in the kitchen or when you f*ck up some diy or when an appliance catches fire with you reasonably close to it. Plenty of small fires like that are very easy to deal with and doing that produces a hell of a lot less damage to deal with.
Corse you do need to have enough of a clue to know what can be dealt with and what is better not to try.
True enough. I was thinking more of the scenario were the smoke alarms wake you up in the wee small hours. The fire by that time is very likely to be too far advanced to be succesfully fought by some one in their PJs and no BA set.
Might not be overly effective if fitted to ceilings with thick smoke building up at that level.
Useful for power failures without a fire though. I've one in the boiler room where the main CU is and one above one of sets of stairs. TBH the latter, though useful, is not really in a good location as far as being able to see to move about is concerned.
I stopped for a coffee down a lane, in a lay-bye - a guy in van was acting very strangely, out wondering round the road, shouting as if either very drunk or very ill, so I did a 999. I had no idea of the postcode, or name of the lane, but I could give the lat/long from my satnav, which they were not able to make use of. Luckily a local came along, whom I was able to stop and ask where I was and to give help to control the guy, until the emergency services arrived.
I was thinking more of closing the shut-off valve at the gas meter - which is outside the front door which would be one of the escape routes, though admittedly the back door is probably closer - and that's got the main "fuse box" just inside the doorway. I might still try going round the outside of the house to the gas meter to turn it off.
On the other hand, if there was a smell of unburnt gas in the house when I woke up, I'd leg it to the bottom of the garden and call from there: I've seen what a gas explosion can do to a house, when one exploded on the outskirts of York a few years ago :-( The main thing to remember if you smell gas is to resist the urge to turn on a light to help you find your way out. Apparently fire alarms in buildings were often not sounded in the case of a gas leak, for fear of igniting the gas - some other means has to be found of telling everyone to evacuate the building. That may have change with modern Yodalarm fire alarms which are probably fire-safe and don't use a vibrating arm to strike a bell, which creates a spark every time the bell arm breaks the contact.
Most unusual fat fire I started to tackle was in a pub kitchen where the thermostats* on a small counter top deep fryer failed in the on position. , so we isolated it from the consumer unit and then smothered with a blanket while others cleared the customers and called the fire brigade.Despite the blanket flames still crept ominously around the edges threatening to set fire to surrounding items. As the beers cellar was next door to the kitchen we were able to take the spare Co2 cylinders and by just cracking the valve were able to waft Co2 over which killed them. A water extinguisher would obviously be a no no and a normal Co2 extinguisher if one had been available isn?t a good idea as the blast can be too powerful and blow the burning the fat out.
Brigade arrived about 12 mins later , assessed the situation and added another larger fire blanket. Then a fireman wearing protective clothing and built like a brick shit house picked up the fryer and carried it out the door of the kitchen that lead to the pub garden and placed it on the ground.
Once he was clear two of his Colleagues hit it full whack with a normal fire hose which distributed the burning oil with the expected fire ball result, the flames soon subsided though due to the cooling effect and the only casualties were some Dahlias.
Someone asked the Fireman about using the water and got the answer ?We know what we are a doing, don?t do it inside and don?t even think about doing it at home.
I assuming it had two like a good one should but never got around to finding out,perhaps that only applies to the larger fixed in ones.
I did a few company fire courses too, with similar demos. Sometime in my past (no idea when or where) I saw a demo of what not to do with a hot oil fire - a spectacular demo that sticks in the memory quite well. I once set-off a CO2 extinguisher as a test in a small electronics lab - the temperature change was surprising but shortly afterwards I had to rush out because of a feeling of lack of oxygen - obvious really, but I hadn't thought of that effect beforehand.
Hotel or pub, was waiting for breakfast, heard commotion from kitchen, wandered in to see a grill pan and burning sausages, grabbed a tea towel bunged it under the cold tap, wrang it out *well*, took hold of corners, twisted wrists and fore arms inwards so damp tea towel was between the flames and me and laid it gently over. Bit of hissing and whispy smoke, advised rather paniced kitchen staff to just leave it for 30 minutes to cool down before touching it again and returned to wait for my breakfast.
I'm surprised they used water on a fat fire, even in the open air. I wonder why they didn't use foam, as they do for other burning-fuel fires. Maybe they decided they'd got it far away from anything flammable (*) - apart from dahlias! - and wanted to entertain the pub punters ;-)
I thought the usual method with chip pan fires was to put a large board on top of the fire blanket to hold it in close contact with the pan so no air can get in, causing the fire to go out very quickly.
Good bit of lateral thinking using one of the CO2 cylinders that was used for the beer.
(*) "Flammable", *never* "inflammable". The latter was condemned because people interpreted the "in" as meaning not - ie "not flammable" instead of "capable of being inflamed".
I'm rather confused that the Emergency Services didn't know where you were anyway. The last time I rang the Fire Brigade (to report a fire in barn in a rural area) the FB operator knew precisely where I was (You've just got to the end of the layby haven't you sir) with me only knowing I was on the A??
Could well have been an element of the latter,some the retained fire crew were sometimes customers and others were at time work colleagues, ironically the son of one them usually worked there as a barman but wasn?t on duty that night. Both were actual fire engine enthusiasts and owned a small Landrover based appliance obtained from some industrial site.
They frequently attended shows where such machinery is exhibited and the son jumped at the chance to drive an appliance that was sometimes used as a prop in that TV series London?s Burning. The idea was that a bonfire of pallets etc was lit and they would race up and put it out in front of an audience, Unfortunately the lad didn?t allow for a previous light shower had made the grass field a bit slippery compared to tarmac and a full size fire engine with laden water tanks is reasonably heavy, instead of stopping close to the fire they ploughed into it much to the amusement of the crowd, the embarrassment of the lad and the wrath of the machines owner. Needed a few repairs to the headlights etc.
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