Popcorn Puffed up in smoke
 

Long time back I was attending a NIH meeting in DC. All my colleagues went for lunch; I decided to go to my room and make popcorn. Left the popcorn in the microwave and forgot ..and there was smoke everywhere. Frantically I tried to call the front desk to assure them that there was no fire and it was popcorn burnt and smoking in the microwave-too late, guests were evacuated and my friends were not allowed to enter the building. Of course, the meeting was delayed by about 2 hours and since then my friends would suggest that I ask for a Microwave oven less room.

So I was in a hotel in the UK last year - one of those low storey sprawling hotels where most rooms are on the ground floor. There were several exits to the garden clearly marked as Fire Exit. They were all sealed with yellow zip ties. The zip ties did seem to be "special" ones and had some instructions written on them in small letters, which I could not read without my glasses on. I could not figure out by looking at them how you would break them in the case of a fire, so I reported them to front desk and when they ignored me, to the local fire station (who did reply to my email and said it was "fine"). However I won't stay there again. If I could not figure out how to open those doors in broad daylight, with my glasses on and no panic, then I have no idea how I would have done it in the dark, perhaps forgotten my glasses etc.

Any firefighters on here that can explain why a fire exit would be sealed with zip ties? I realise that being on the ground floor they are probably great for burglary, but surely there are better ways????

Maybe these are more to detect opening? I hope they wouldn't be strong enough to prevent the door from opening in an emergency?

I am a fire/EMS official in the WDC area. In the US, albeit without seeing a pic, a 'zip tie' would be illegal without a doubt. Emergency exits are to operate without anything to inhibit the operation, i.e. operate via a panic-type bar, with an option to set off an alarm. This is per the NFPA Life Safety Code, which is adopted by many other developed countries with modifications.

That said, I've paid attention to fire safety, or lack thereof, on past trips, but now I'm doing something about it. I had a recent stay at an otherwise nice condo in Central America. The instant hot water heater leaked (dripped), had a bucket under it, but the hot water heater was over the electrical panel. Water and electricity do not mix, and there was no form of smoke detection in the condo. I sent a note to the owner and he wasn't aware that such a thing would be an potential hazard!

I am headed on a RTW and I am going to purchase a travel-sized smoke detector/carbon monoxide detector. I am just as concerned about CO as I am about fire. A quick search this morning shows these to be 20-25 USD.

Sounds like they are security seals to detect unauthorised opening of the door.


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Good on you for doing something about this.

After many years with no false alarms I experienced 2 in the past 2 years. The first went off after I had just arrived from work in my 31st floor room at IC Bangkok. I wasted 30 seconds opening the safe to get my passport and laptop, then ran down 17 flights before learning that it was a false alarm. In the rush I forgot my room key, which cost me another 10 minutes waiting for a replacement. In retrospect maybe better to keep the safe unlocked when I'm in the room, those seconds may prove important. Though passport, phone and wallet are really the only 3 items I need to get home...

The 2nd incident was midday at the Grand Hyatt DC - this time only a 9 floor descent to street level, and again the false alarm was quickly cleared.

+1 I always request rooms far from the elevator, but now I think I may start requesting rooms near the stairs... and definitely will start memorizing the location.

I like the suggestion to request a room near the fire exit.

They are "Tamper Evident" and used to detect whether the door has been opened. They are incredibly easy to break and feature on Fire Exits, and indeed Fire Extinguishers, all over the country. They attach them to fire extinguishers to show that they have been interfered with. You don't need to read the instructions on the zip ties, just push the massive great lever on the door to open it.

Time flies and this is still a great thread. Do anyone have a recommendation of a smoke hood, or similar that one can take with on travel.

Just notitied this recent article on Flyertalk pertaining to this subject matter: https://www.flyertalk.com/articles/s...otel-fire.html

It's so crazy they will delay a call to the fire service. Glad you made it out ok, hope everyone else did too.

I was at a hotel last weekend that hade a false alarm. I happened to be in the lobby at the time. I was amazed at the number of phone calls that the front desk was receiving from rooms inquiring if the alarm was real. It seems like the people making the calls were wasting precious seconds if it were a real emergency.

I stayed at the Grand Californian (Disney owned/operated resort) at Disneyland a few years back, one time in the middle of the night the alarm went off, we were kind of slow waking up due to coming from the East Coast previously in the day but got out anyway in a timely fashion. Turned out to be a false alarm (reason never given). Funnily enough the next day there were people at the front desk demanding compensation. I'll take a false alarm anyday over dying.

thank you for sharing：）