By closing your doors at night or before leaving the house you can prevent the spread of a fire and toxic smoke by up to 20 minutes.
This is the potentially lifesaving message from West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service’s (WSFRS) new Shut Fires Out campaign.
WSFRS Chief Fire Officer, Sabrina Cohen-Hatton, explained the significance of this. She said: “By closing your internal doors, you’re containing the fire to that room for up to 20 minutes. What does 20 minutes mean? That means you and your loved ones can get to a place of safety, give us a call and you’ll reduce the damage to your home from fire and smoke.
“Not only that, by containing it to one room, this could also make the fire simpler to extinguish for our crews.
It’s such a simple thing to do but we just need to remember to do it each night or before we leave the house. Set an alarm on your phone, ask Alexa to remind you or put a post-it note on your front door to help you remember.”
The service attended 428 house fires during 2018/19 many of which included vulnerable people.
Are you worried a vulnerable person isn’t fire safe? Refer them, or yourself, for free Safe & Well advice. Even under lockdown we can do this via Skype, telephone call or by handing out our handy booklet. Where appropriate they’ll fit smoke alarms or other specialist fire detection equipment free of charge.
Refer someone for Safe & Well advice or enter the competition to be in for a chance to win one of three Amazon Alexa Echo Dots by visiting www.westsussex.gov.uk/ShutFiresOut.
Recent Comments