Travel with Angela Lansbury: Swiss and Iraq fires

Sunday, February 8, 2026

Swiss and Iraq fires - lessons learned

To prevent tragedies, you need prevention and cure. Major fires have happened in the USA, Ireland, Iraq, Brazil. What lessons can be learned?

Iraq Wedding Fire

Pyrotechnics at a wedding in Iraq in 2023 killed more than 100. The world should have learned from the videos of that.

Prevention and Cure

The first thing you need and easiest to fix is fire extinguishers.

They should not be locked away, which renders them useless. It should be a criminal offence to use them when there is not a fire.

Following the instructions, we fitted a smoke alarm in the corridor between the kitchen and the bedrooms.

The idea is to alert you to a fire at night. You should not be leaving food cooking unattended in a kitchen. You set an alarm to remind you to check on it and turn it off. You check all switches are off before leaving a room.

What is the ease of setting the alarm? Some alarms have a button you push. If the ceiling is low, you can reach up. You might think of standing on a safe stool, rather than on a chair, with somebody else to steady you, steady the chair, and check you don't fall, or catch you. Another way is to push up with a broom handle. This means keeping the broom nearby.

Some alarms have a cover which can be removed to check batteries, after the base is screwed to the ceiling.

Portable Alarms

An alarm which changes colour for carbon monoxide, and sticks on, can be taken with you and affixed in a rental property. Stick it on the flat surface of a cupboard. Write yourself a note or set an alarm to remind yourself to remove it after your last meal, before leaving the property if you are temporarily overseas.

Got a gap year? Want to increase your skills? Retired? Take a course in plumbing or electricity and qualify. This could be a source of employment and income. Save you time and money.

If you are not qualified to do the work, you can still save time and money by briefing the workers. Enable you to check that workers are doing the right thing. Help you to choose suitable equipment. Youtube has loads of videos on how to fix simple things like smoke alarms.

Below are what I have found. Not items I have tried and recommended. But useful links so you can start your investigation quickly.

Rather than only being alerted to a fire after the event, consider fire prevention.

What to avoid? As we have learned from the tragic fire in Switzerland at New Year 2026, keep flames away from anything flammable and if possible, avoid using candles, incense, indoor and outdoor fireworks, pyrotechnics, furniture without a fire label (and don't remove the labels).

Clean Oven To Prevent Fire

The oven should be cleaned regularly. When my son was a student, a group of boys share a flat. None of them cleaned the oven. Eventually the grease built up and the oven caught fire.

If you have a dishwasher, some of the removable fittings can be washed in the dishwasher. If it does nto clean them completely, after one or two long wash cycles, you may find that the warmth of the dishwasher has loosened the grease well enough to make it faster and easier to clean by hand afterwards.