I was sitting in a restaurant in Singapore with my friends. A buffet was provided for a visiting group, with lights keeping the food warm. I retreated to a distant table away from the noisy crowd. Looking at my distance from the front door and the fire exit, I wondered whether near the front door, away from the kitchen, would be the safest place to sit.
I recall a fire destroying The Swan Peking Chinese restaurant in Hatch End. Restaurant staff are taught not to throw water on burning oil.
When my son was a student, one of his classmates was in a flat where the oven caught fire. Nobody had cleaned the oven. Eventually the build-up of grease caught fire.
In Western and Italian restaurants, another fire danger is candles on the tables. For birthdays, you see cakes carried in with lit candles on top. An Italian restaurant owner in Harrow, London, told me that he has an average of three birthday parties a night.
Over in Singapore, my friends who live in an HDB block were discussing fire safety comparing Singapore with what happened at Grenfell tower block which caught fire in London, England. I remember in New York on a guided tour being shown the factory where the fire caused the change in the law so that all New York buildings required external fire escapes.
But that's no good when you are told by the fire brigade to stay where you are, and we are coming to rescue you, when the fire brigade knew they could not do so.
The people who died in the Grenfell fire were told to stay put. The theory is that a fire is contained to the floor where the fire broke out. If you leave, you might encounter smoke in a stairwell, or obstruct the fire personnel coming up.
This idea was new to me. Every other fire instruction I have seen, for example, in a hotel, tells you to leave immediately.
However, in Grenfell, the flames were leaping up the outside cladding, as photos and videos show.
Photo by Natalie Oxford, from Wikipedia.
I have seen pictures of suggestions for quick evacuation from tall buildings using a pole, like the ones fire stations use to get the firemen out fast to the fire engine. I have also seen what looks like a large tube descending.
My friends sat over lunch, discussing, 'Is Singapore, safer, or less safe than London and New York? Safer than in previous years?"
Do we still make a point of staying in low rise motels in the USA instead of high-rise hotels?
I recall a fire destroying The Swan Peking Chinese restaurant in Hatch End. Restaurant staff are taught not to throw water on burning oil.
When my son was a student, one of his classmates was in a flat where the oven caught fire. Nobody had cleaned the oven. Eventually the build-up of grease caught fire.
In Western and Italian restaurants, another fire danger is candles on the tables. For birthdays, you see cakes carried in with lit candles on top. An Italian restaurant owner in Harrow, London, told me that he has an average of three birthday parties a night.
Over in Singapore, my friends who live in an HDB block were discussing fire safety comparing Singapore with what happened at Grenfell tower block which caught fire in London, England. I remember in New York on a guided tour being shown the factory where the fire caused the change in the law so that all New York buildings required external fire escapes.
But that's no good when you are told by the fire brigade to stay where you are, and we are coming to rescue you, when the fire brigade knew they could not do so.
The people who died in the Grenfell fire were told to stay put. The theory is that a fire is contained to the floor where the fire broke out. If you leave, you might encounter smoke in a stairwell, or obstruct the fire personnel coming up.
This idea was new to me. Every other fire instruction I have seen, for example, in a hotel, tells you to leave immediately.
However, in Grenfell, the flames were leaping up the outside cladding, as photos and videos show.
Photo by Natalie Oxford, from Wikipedia.
I have seen pictures of suggestions for quick evacuation from tall buildings using a pole, like the ones fire stations use to get the firemen out fast to the fire engine. I have also seen what looks like a large tube descending.
My friends sat over lunch, discussing, 'Is Singapore, safer, or less safe than London and New York? Safer than in previous years?"
Do we still make a point of staying in low rise motels in the USA instead of high-rise hotels?
Two of us used to do that, but have stopped doing so.
Three different families all lived in high blocks in Singapore for part of the year or all the year.
First, I asked, "Are there fire extinguishers in your HDB blocks?"
Jay, who is a pessimist, said, "I've never seen any."
His wife, 'Ray,' said, "I am sure there are some."
She googled it. She found a picture of coiled red fire hoses attached to a water pipe.
He objected, "But who knows how to use those!"
Another friend commented, "You have to read the instructions."
On the wall above the fire hose was a list of instructions. I said, "It would be a good idea to read the instructions in advance in order to act quickly when you are needed."
The instructions included warnings not to leave goods obstructing access to the hose.
Jay, who is a pessimist, said, "I've never seen any."
His wife, 'Ray,' said, "I am sure there are some."
She googled it. She found a picture of coiled red fire hoses attached to a water pipe.
He objected, "But who knows how to use those!"
Another friend commented, "You have to read the instructions."
On the wall above the fire hose was a list of instructions. I said, "It would be a good idea to read the instructions in advance in order to act quickly when you are needed."
The instructions included warnings not to leave goods obstructing access to the hose.
Then we discussed obstructions in corridors and stairwells.
I said, "When I first came to Singapore, in the 1990s, I remember seeing an HDB block with a menagerie of rabbits which I presumed were pets."
I said, "When I first came to Singapore, in the 1990s, I remember seeing an HDB block with a menagerie of rabbits which I presumed were pets."
"No!" said my Singaporean friend, Jay. "People moved into the skyscraper blocks from villages with farmyard and land where they used to keep pigs and sheep and they moved in with their animals and kept them outside the block of flats or inside in the corridors. They kept chickens to eat and rabbits to eat."
I thought, 'Oh no - not the rabbits!'
The government website on safety shows very clearly how people obstruct walkways with plants, storage boxes, clothes on drying racks. Lines with measurements show how wide the area is to keep clear and why. Pictures show an ambulance official trying to wheel a person in a wheelchair along an obstructed corridor, an open to the air walkway typical of many government HDB blocks.
So now you know that obstructions are officially forbidden. And why - so that wheelchairs and emergency services can make their way unobstructed along the corridors - in an emergency. (And any time!)
Fires In Flats
My late father insisted on burning a memorial candle all night, the 24 hours on the anniversary of my mother's death.
Later his flat was rented out. The Hindu couple performed a fire ceremony in the living room. This involved setting a fire in a large barbecue bowl indoors on the dining table, and circling the table seven times. They had hardly started when the smoke filled the room and the fire alarms went off.
The elderly blind man upstairs heard the alarm, opened his front door, and smelled the smoke! He raced down the stairs, falling and hurting himself on the way out. He was very upset So was his wife.
On one of my inspections I watched an old lady's stick of incense curl over at the top and fall.
In London we used to keep goods in the electrical cupboards. Signs went up asking residents to remove their belongings from cupboards.
After lots of objects and reluctance, we and others found places for out goods within the flats instead of the outside cupboards. Eventually when I had a gas and electricity safety check I asked why the cupboards had to be empty. I was told, "The master switch turning off the gas and electricity is in that cupboard. Seconds count.
Fire In A Garden In Harrow
I know that is so. In another area of London, I saw a neighbour's garden plants catch fire. The flames shot up from a weedkiller, to a low plant, the bush, the tree, then along the whole line of trees! Fortunately, I and two other neighbours rang the fire brigade with the number of the house. The side gate was opened to let the firemen and firewoman in with their huge hoses. After wards I spoke to the firewoman. She said after all the trees caught fire, within another two minutes, the two neighbouring houses would both have caught fire and burned to the ground. (The neighbour's granny had been inside watching anxiously, mesmerised, from the kitchen window at the back of the next house. Another neighbour advised her to get out of the house.)
Blocking Doorway
I then saw one of the flat renters park her stroller outside the door of the cupboard. She said, "You only had to knock on my door and I could remove it in a minute."
But you don't want to waste a minute waiting for her to come to the door, fold down the stroller, and move it out of the way. In a minute the flames can jump from the chip pan to the curtains and destroy the whole kitchen and force everybody to move out, for weeks whilst they wait for the insurance assessors, estimates for repair, workmen to arrive and replace the kitchen.
Friends' House Fires - Followed By Divorce
Other friends of mine lost their home to a kitchen fire. They had to move out.
This was followed by a divorce.
Animal Attack
A second family, who I knew well, lost their entire house to a fire caused by hibernating animals waking and chewing electricals. The home owners were away on holiday. Neighbours had the key but sensibly did not risk their lives going inside. As soon as they saw the fire, they called the fire brigade. The fire brigade put out the fire.
The fire damaged very little. However, the entire house was uninhabitable. First the residents had to stay out for a week to be sure nothing was smouldering unseen and likely to burst into flames at night whilst they were sleeping. Secondly, every room was full of soot from the fire, and water damage from the hoses.) They also divorced.
No lives lost, just the family home, and the marriage, so they don't even figure in the statistics of fatal fires or fire injuries.
Two sorts of fire extinguishing devices can be bought.
The Moral - Get Out Fast
Now you know why getting out fast is important. And why you should not block corridors, nor allow others to do so.
Fires In Flats
My late father insisted on burning a memorial candle all night, the 24 hours on the anniversary of my mother's death.
Later his flat was rented out. The Hindu couple performed a fire ceremony in the living room. This involved setting a fire in a large barbecue bowl indoors on the dining table, and circling the table seven times. They had hardly started when the smoke filled the room and the fire alarms went off.
The elderly blind man upstairs heard the alarm, opened his front door, and smelled the smoke! He raced down the stairs, falling and hurting himself on the way out. He was very upset So was his wife.
On one of my inspections I watched an old lady's stick of incense curl over at the top and fall.
In London we used to keep goods in the electrical cupboards. Signs went up asking residents to remove their belongings from cupboards.
After lots of objects and reluctance, we and others found places for out goods within the flats instead of the outside cupboards. Eventually when I had a gas and electricity safety check I asked why the cupboards had to be empty. I was told, "The master switch turning off the gas and electricity is in that cupboard. Seconds count.
Fire In A Garden In Harrow
I know that is so. In another area of London, I saw a neighbour's garden plants catch fire. The flames shot up from a weedkiller, to a low plant, the bush, the tree, then along the whole line of trees! Fortunately, I and two other neighbours rang the fire brigade with the number of the house. The side gate was opened to let the firemen and firewoman in with their huge hoses. After wards I spoke to the firewoman. She said after all the trees caught fire, within another two minutes, the two neighbouring houses would both have caught fire and burned to the ground. (The neighbour's granny had been inside watching anxiously, mesmerised, from the kitchen window at the back of the next house. Another neighbour advised her to get out of the house.)
Blocking Doorway
I then saw one of the flat renters park her stroller outside the door of the cupboard. She said, "You only had to knock on my door and I could remove it in a minute."
But you don't want to waste a minute waiting for her to come to the door, fold down the stroller, and move it out of the way. In a minute the flames can jump from the chip pan to the curtains and destroy the whole kitchen and force everybody to move out, for weeks whilst they wait for the insurance assessors, estimates for repair, workmen to arrive and replace the kitchen.
Friends' House Fires - Followed By Divorce
Other friends of mine lost their home to a kitchen fire. They had to move out.
This was followed by a divorce.
Animal Attack
A second family, who I knew well, lost their entire house to a fire caused by hibernating animals waking and chewing electricals. The home owners were away on holiday. Neighbours had the key but sensibly did not risk their lives going inside. As soon as they saw the fire, they called the fire brigade. The fire brigade put out the fire.
The fire damaged very little. However, the entire house was uninhabitable. First the residents had to stay out for a week to be sure nothing was smouldering unseen and likely to burst into flames at night whilst they were sleeping. Secondly, every room was full of soot from the fire, and water damage from the hoses.) They also divorced.
No lives lost, just the family home, and the marriage, so they don't even figure in the statistics of fatal fires or fire injuries.
Two sorts of fire extinguishing devices can be bought.
The Moral - Get Out Fast
Now you know why getting out fast is important. And why you should not block corridors, nor allow others to do so.
Famous Fires
UK
Charlotte Bronte's work of fiction, Jane Eyre, includes a fire in a bedroom, inspired by the incident of a fire caused by her brother Branwell.
Grenfell.
USA
The home of my namesake, Angela Lansbury the actress, in the USA.
To find out more look at the illustrations and comments on:
SINGAPORE
Scdf.gov.sg
US FIRE ESCAPE INSPECTION
https://maximumfireescapes.com/
A look at poles and slides (like the ones used on planes)
http://www.firecurtains.co.uk/unusual-fire-escapes/
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker
SINGAPORE
Scdf.gov.sg
US FIRE ESCAPE INSPECTION
https://maximumfireescapes.com/
A look at poles and slides (like the ones used on planes)
http://www.firecurtains.co.uk/unusual-fire-escapes/
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker
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