PLease help settle an argument.

I think that at night we should be keeping the kitchen door open so that if a fire starts (dishwasher, phone chargers, cheap inpirt DX bike light 🙄 etc) the smoke will activate the alarm in the hallway quickly enough for me to come downstairs and do something about it.

Mrs Sinatra however says that the door should be shut to contain any fire, clearly this means that it would need to be a raging inferno before any smoke crept out under teh door to set off the alarm. This is daft

I know that I am right, but I need proof!

We are not paranoid at all about fire safety, but a recent near miss gave us cause for thought.

Ta

Have you thought about a smoke detector in the kitchen as well?

You can almost bank on the fact that your kitchen door will not a be a fire door so in all honesty it wouldn't contain a fire for long. As a rule it will be 44mm for a half hr and 54 mm for an hr, but as I say it's unlikely. At the end of the day it is the toxic smoke that kills you most times, and as early detection as possible of this is key to "getting out". Also
the smoke is usually generated at the initial start of the fire, you don't very often get a sudden wall of flames unless accelerants are involved.
So in all honesty you're better off with it open IMO for early detection!

You're wrong I'm afraid,

Shutting the kitchen door (and lounge) will be of a enourmous benefit should a fire develop in either of those rooms, shutting the door will keep the majority of the products of combustion in the room of origin, thereby making your escape
from the building safer and easier, the door is never a good enough seal to prevent the small amounts of smoke needed to activate the alarm from seeping by and activating it (think how little toast needs)

I'm telling you hand on heart that I have been into properties where shutting the door has at the very least prevented unnecersary damage to the entire property and has almost certainly enabled the family to escape the extremely dangerous smoke ( unburnt products of combustion) and leave the property.

Smoke detectors give you early warning to enable you to make a safe escape, it's harder or impossible to escape if you've gotta walk/ crawl through those toxic fume at 3 in the morning.

If you want further advice contact your fire and rescue service, ask to speak to their community fire safety department and they will tell you the same.

Al

For the record I'm an experienced full time firefighter, I've first hand experience of it. I'll try and link a couple of videos of fire development to this post.

Also I'll say, your house is your castle, whatever and however you decide to live is your choice, just be aware that kitchen and lounge doors open at night is not as safe as doors shut.

What Lummox said. You'd be surprised how little it takes to set off your alarm if it's in proper working order. Keep the doors closed and check your alarm regularly.

http://www2.hantsfire.gov.uk/producernine/profthree/index_files/Default.htm

not sure if that'll link

couldn't find the room fire which is a slower development but this shows the quantity of smoke that can be rapidly produced and highlights why you'd want to keep the fire and smoke in the room of origin.

Wot Lummox said*.

If you are that worried about a fire within the kitchen you can always fit a domestic heat detector for the kitchen.
http://www.sdfirealarms.co.uk/shop/h380ikitchenguardinterlinkableheatdetector-p-477.html

* Lummox remember to record these CFS hours. 😉

lol- logged + travel time + paperwork 😉

Doors shut, just did a Fire Warden course and they showed a good video comparing Door open v Door shut in a house they set on fire for video.

Since then i have been closing living room door fully!!!

lummox is correct.

Keep doors closed, switch appliances off at the wall (no, not the fridge) and put a decent heat/co2 detector in your kitchen. A smoke detector will be ok but you will set it off fairly frequently when using the toaster.

Also have a PLAN for how you are going to get out if the alarms do go off in the middle of the night, this is especially important if you have kids.

I'm a h & s/fire safety bod so do this kind of stuff for a living.

i retro fit fire doors and upgrade existing one's too and lummox is correct. any door/barrier is better than none.