Close Before You Doze!

[freemanatheist]

@ihadavision Some have like electric recliners and heaters built in

 

[ihadavision]

@freemanatheist Oh man, it would be so nice to have a heated couch... but so uncool to have it spontaneously combust...

 

[kparker10]

@adrienne This is so interesting to read/ hear about. When I was little I remember my mom never letting us sleep with the door closed because she was terrified of backdraft or of the metal doorknobs being too hot to open if there was a fire

 

[buniheart]

@kparker10 A hot doorknob would prevent the kids to go to a potentially danger zone though

 

[adrienne]

@kparker10 Yeah I feel like it’s an important message to pass along because it’s definitely one of those things that isn’t exactly intuitive. Having no barriers between your room and your kids room totally feels like a safe thing to do!

 

[blueridgepearl]

@kparker10 Yeah, that’s what my parents always said to me too - “if there was a fire and your door was closed, how would we open a hot doorknob to get to you?”

We keep all doors closed at night now, but it’s a hard one to wrap my brain around sometimes still because that question is still running through my head.

 

[katrina2017]

@blueridgepearl I'd think if you're a parent knowing you needed to get your kid out of a burning house, you'd touch the doorknob and deal with the burns later, or you'd adrenaline-kick the door down (most interior doors aren't that hard to kick in anyway if you're reasonably strong and fairly determined). This seems like one of those things rational brains think about but adrenaline-fueled emergency brains are not gonna give two shits about when the prime directive is "get the kid."

 

[meantformoreacts2024]

@katrina2017 Plus if the air outside the bedroom is hot enough to superheat the doorknob, actually touching the thing is going to be the least of the problems, surely.

 

[stayinfaith]

@blueridgepearl If my kid was in the room I’d strip down naked & use my own clothes as an oven mitt if I had too

I mean how hot can the doorknob realistically be????? It’s not going to vaporise me on contact lol. If I had to grab it barehanded & be burned I would

 

[munch444]

@stayinfaith If it gets so hot that even using your shirt as a protective layer to open it doesn't help, you don't really want to go there anyway. It means the room is heavily on fire, and opening the door and giving the fire new dose of oxygen will quarter the time you have left.

But if I remember correctly from my training, a metal doorknob gets only slightly warm when the air in the next room is already very dangerously hot for you. For the knob to get burning hot, there would have to be inferno, so no, don't go there please.

 

[tinbike]

@kparker10 If the doorknob is too hot to touch there is probably active fire in the room on the other side and it’s not the escape route you needed anyway. It’s better to stay put, stuff some clothes under the door, and get rescued out the window.

 

[kparker10]

@tinbike I think her fear with that one was if the fire was in our room for some reason, she wouldn’t be able to get to us.

 

[chrissie0555]

@adrienne This is good supporting article I found when I saw the post you're talking about

Also, in ideal HVAC circumstances, "closed not locked" would only ever apply to young kids old enough to know what to do during an emergency. Otherwise, toddlers are going to flee/panic and be much harder to find.

The risks of the fire starting in the toddler's room absolutely do not outweigh the benefits of being able to locate them in an emergency.

 

[kingdomkings]

@adrienne Thank you for sharing. This is so important.

 

[steffie1981]

@adrienne My mother's house caught fire with every door open and every single room was black by the time they put the fire out.

 

[shanewp1988]

@adrienne I've seen local fire services here (East of England) spreading the same message.

In-laws clearly haven't paid attention to the warnings, they babysat our 3 year old last night & when they put her to bed they left her door open - and risked waking her up by watching the tv turned up too loud, and going in & check on her
I promptly shut her door, but heard her coughing half an hour later and went into her, then found they'd also left her in her dressing gown - which was twisted around her chest, with one end of the belt over her shoulder
Got that off her & she slept soundly for the rest of the night.

(Not totally surprised though - they're the same people who once complained to OH after I got pissed off at them, telling them for the third time in 3 days not to put the kids in car seats whilst wearing thick winter coats...)

 

[daniel76]

@adrienne Thanks for sharing! I just recently became aware of close before you doze.

 

[jesusisjesus]

@adrienne Yes here in the uk it’s the same.

 

[ermahgerd]

@adrienne If my cats didn’t demand to go back and forth between my bedroom and the rest of the house I would always close them. But the pesky fuckers love to screech until I open it.

 

[adelita]

@ermahgerd When I was pregnant, I refused to let my cats control this aspect of our lives, so we closed our door every night despite the constant meowing. There were some sleepless nights. Eventually, after about a week and a half, they stopped. Now they can tolerate our door and the baby's door being shut. There'll be the odd day where they run up to a door to meow but it's usually when they've got the zoomies, and they only do it once.