Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren Bogobam Here. On a cold night in Fairfax, Virginia,
Speaker 1: firefighters were dispatched to a house fire, where on arrival
Speaker 1: they were told that everyone had exited the building. The
Speaker 1: Fairfax County Fire and Rescue team went in to extinguish
Speaker 1: the fire, which was in full force with rolling flames
Speaker 1: and thick smoke. Two firefighters entered ahead of the crew
Speaker 1: to search the home. As they were turning to finish
Speaker 1: their search, one heard a voice calling for help. They
Speaker 1: found a girl behind a closed bedroom door. The interior
Speaker 1: of the house was burnt and smoke covered, but what
Speaker 1: the firefighters saw behind the door was a clean room.
Speaker 1: One of them said in a video showing footage from
Speaker 1: the fire, there was no smoke in the room. It
Speaker 1: was completely clear. I noticed that there was no soot
Speaker 1: on her. She didn't have any signs of smoke in
Speaker 1: hillation or anything like that. She was just completely clean
Speaker 1: due to the closed door. Most of us are familiar
Speaker 1: with fire safety tips like stop, drop and roll, and
Speaker 1: get low and go, but a decade of fire safety
Speaker 1: research has shown that closing doors can also be life saving,
Speaker 1: especially when getting out in case of fire is not
Speaker 1: an option, so let's introduce a new one, close before
Speaker 1: you doze. We spoke with Jennifer Williams, a marketing specialist
Speaker 1: with the u L Firefighter Safety Research Institute and organization
Speaker 1: that advances fire research knowledge and develops cutting edge practical
Speaker 1: fire service education. She said, we're looking to create a
Speaker 1: generational behavior change of closing doors before you go to
Speaker 1: bed at night. In general, it's not something that people
Speaker 1: think about and they certainly don't correlate doing it to
Speaker 1: fire safety. According to u L, of house fire deaths
Speaker 1: occur between eleven pm and seven am, and of people
Speaker 1: surveyed did not close their bedroom doors at night. You
Speaker 1: might think that a closed door would be no match
Speaker 1: for a house fire, but the difference between how a
Speaker 1: room with an open door and a room with a
Speaker 1: closed door survive a fire is dramatic. Smoke moves up
Speaker 1: and out and fills a room from the top down,
Speaker 1: so it reaches the floor last, which means it can't
Speaker 1: seep beneath the door easily. That's why we're taught to
Speaker 1: stay low in the case of a fire. Firefighters have
Speaker 1: long understood the benefit of compartmentalizing a fire. Fire needs oxygen, fuel,
Speaker 1: and heat to survive. Thus, if a fire can be compartmentalized,
Speaker 1: its spread will slow because it lacks oxygen. If the
Speaker 1: oxygen supply is cut off completely, the fire may even
Speaker 1: go out. If you close your bedroom door at night
Speaker 1: and a fire starts in the kitchen while you're sleeping,
Speaker 1: you may have enough time to wake up and figure
Speaker 1: out what to do. This could give you enough time
Speaker 1: to exit the building or call nine one one, but
Speaker 1: also might give you a safe place to wait for
Speaker 1: the fire department while those smoke, heat, and toxic fumes
Speaker 1: remain beyond your door. Also, in a bedroom with a
Speaker 1: closed door, even when a fire is raging outside, the
Speaker 1: temperature can remain below a hundred degrees fahrenheit or thirty
Speaker 1: seven celsius, with carbon monoxide levels at one hundred parts
Speaker 1: per million. Compare that to a room with the door open,
Speaker 1: where temperatures can quickly rise above a thousand degrees fahrenheit
Speaker 1: or three seventy seven celsius and carbon monoxide levels become
Speaker 1: extremely toxic at ten parts per million. Of course, though
Speaker 1: if you can get out do Williams says that you
Speaker 1: should actually close as many doors as possible at night.
Speaker 1: One reason it's so important is that home fires spread
Speaker 1: more quickly today than they used to. Forty years ago,
Speaker 1: we had about seventeen minutes to escape a house fire,
Speaker 1: but today that's down to three minutes or less. We
Speaker 1: can thank contemporary building practices and synthetic materials for the change.
Speaker 1: So far, the close before you doze campaign is working.
Speaker 1: Williams says that Americans who have seen the message say
Speaker 1: they'll close their bedroom doors. The remaining nine percent say
Speaker 1: they won't because they don't want to be separated from
Speaker 1: children or pets. But for those nine percent or anyone
Speaker 1: who occasionally forgets, Williams reminds us that other fire safety
Speaker 1: measures are equally important in the home, especially working smoke alarms.
Speaker 1: She says every home should have smoke alarms on every
Speaker 1: level of the home and inside and outside of every
Speaker 1: sleeping room. Be sure they're hard wired together so that
Speaker 1: if one goes off, they all do, alerting you to
Speaker 1: a fire anywhere in the home. Ideally, you should check
Speaker 1: them every month. You should also create a fire escape plan.
Speaker 1: It should include two ways out of every room and
Speaker 1: a meeting place outside, and you should practice it a
Speaker 1: drill is a great way to teach your children what
Speaker 1: your smoke alarms actually sound like. Today's episode was written
Speaker 1: by Dr Carry Whitney and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain
Speaker 1: Stuff is a production of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works.
Speaker 1: For more in this and lons of other home safety topics,
Speaker 1: visit our home planet how stuff Works dot com and
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