ASCJSTEP

Thank You Stewart for posting this article,it IS very useful information!

Sometimes I take it for granite that in the event of a fire everyone knows how to react, and quite the opposite is true when panic sets in. I myself would not know these things if it weren't for the fact that my husband is a veteran firefighter for over 18yrs in the city of Atlanta.(Please don't think that I'm bragging I'm just explaining how I know this info.) This IS vital info that may indeed save someone's life! I have listened to horror stories about fire deaths for years

Something I noted that wasn't mentioned earlier is the fact that the ladders on the fire trucks will NOT reach above the 10th floor, most ladders(there have only been mention of one or two 150ft and they are said to not operate properly)are 100ft long and in order to even reach the 10th floor the truck would have to have access right next to the building. So please keep this in mind when reserving your room as it may save your life.

Another note that Baze mentioned about using the back of your hand to feel the door for heat, another reason for doing that is b/c the back of your hand is more sensitive as opposed to the palm and therefore would sense heat more quickly.If you DO feel the door is hot DO NOT open it, as flames may be on the other side and backdraft occurs, the oxygen in your room will only add fuel to the flame!

As for the elevators, most of them contain heat sensors in them and for some strange reason take you TO the heat??? I'm not an
architect or an engineer but I'm not sure what purpose they serve on an elevator, this expains why the elevator bypassed the 18th floor and took them to the fire floor. Maybe some of you engineers can explain this one to me. In any event DO NOT take an elevator if you suspect there is a fire.

I hope this information is helpful to others and that your plan of action will be there when needed

[This message has been edited by ASCJSTEP (edited 02-24-2001).]

cblaisd

With the Travel Buzz's moderators' permission, I have deleted a number off-topic or OMNI-style posts (or posts that the op has since incorporated into his post) in anticipation of bumping this thread.

Ordinarily, of course, the FlyerTalk Guidelines and Rules prohibit the bumping of 2+ year old threads (which is why I sought permission from two of the Travel Buzz mods), but the information in the op's post deserves to be seen by more FTers -- particularly those who weren't here when this article was originally posted!

Thanks,

cblaisd
Senior Moderator

oldpenny16

thank you. I've been in 2 hotels that had fires. One in London and one in Las Vegas. Both times we were entirely alone in helping ourselves to make the correct decisions. No one told us what to do.

Both were kitchen fires that caused a great deal of smoke and no damage to bedrooms, but we had to get out at the time due to smoke and uncertainty.

Scifience

Very useful post. ^

I've been in a number of hotels when there was a false alarm, but luckily have not ever experienced the real deal (except for once when some teenagers lit a pile of leaves in front of my house on fire, but that isn't nearly as scary).

Thanks to cblaisd for bumping this up.

svenskaflicka

Thank you so much for posting this. As the daughter of a firefighter, I know how important it is not to panic and to get the lay of the land. I have survived an apartment fire (it was my apartment and due to an electrical issue) and I can tell anyone here how scary it is. Common sense is so very important.

I will never go into another hotel without looking to see where the exits are. That tip may save my life one day. I have never done that before. Thanks again.

AC110

I appreciate the good intent behind this, but it contains terribly dangerous advice.

Think very carefully about trying to get to the roof - many stairwells do not go to the roof, and if it does, it is almost certain to be padlocked.

By the time you find out there's no access to the roof, you are in far more serious trouble than when you started many floors below.

As a former hotel manager I can tell you that for liability reasons roof access doors are usually padlocked. Drunken guests falling off a roof are a tort lawyer's dream.

Furthermore, leaving a roof door open if you could get through it would only turn the stairwell into a chimney, the difference in air pressure would suck smoke from the fire floors into the stairwell.

There's better and more succinct advice out there, search for a government or Fire Department source on Google.

Here are a couple of examples;

http://www.safetycenter.navy.mil/MED...01/whatyou.htm
http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/applications...afety_tips.cfm

One thing that will always stand you in good stead is to walk from your room to the nearest fire exit right after check-in, counting the doorways along the way so you can feel your way in the smoke or dark if there is a problem. Then go through the door to ensure the stairs are clear. If you're of a mind to do it, walk the stairs to the outside exit.

And always know where your room key is - you'll need to take it with you in case you have to turn back.

Travel safe, Friends.

Doppy

What are you supposed to do then if you start going down the stairs and find a standing cloud of thick smoke a few floors down?

AC110

I don't have an answer for that, every situation is going to be different, I just know that heading for the roof is a very poor idea unless you have good reason to believe that there is an unlocked door at the top of those stairs. Will edit my previous post to ad that caveat.

I believe, and it's been a few years since my hotel days, that the advice we were given by the experts in training seminars for hotel staff was to go back to the room and try to signal for help.

Doppy

Aren't there any fire codes that require the exits at the top to be unlocked?

JohnWM

I found this post very useful to read and to heed. However, I note that it was originally written before the Arab terrorist attack at the World Trade Center here in New York on September 11, 2001.

After that tragedy, the New York Fire Department issued a not-well-publicized alert to high rise building managements. The alert indicated that occupants of high rise buildings were not to go to the roof in case of fire. The NY Fire Department specifically ruled out any future possibility of roof top rescues.

This policy decision was based on the NY FD's inability to effect roof top rescues of persons who had fled to the roof tops of the two twin towers immediately after the terrorist attack. Rescue heliocopters could not approach the burning towers due to the excruciating heat; the persons on the roof waiting to be rescued were only yards from safety but died in the collapse of the buildings.

I am not sure of the status of roof top rescues elsewhere; here in New York it no longer exists.

AC110

Excellent point. A major fire that breaches the building walls will create severe turbulence caused by the rising heat that can make it impossible for a helicopter to approach the roof.

I think helicopter rescue from the roof is more a movie phenomenon than anything else.

Ready2Go

The point about it being hard to see emergency exit signs (which typically are up near the ceiling) in thick smoke is an interesting one. Why aren't there lights at floor level, the way there are in airplanes?

frontenac551

That would seem like a good idea.

I do count the number of rows to the nearest emergency exits (both in front of and behind me) when I get on an airplane. I'm not sure how easy it would be to see those lights in an emergency.

Sanosuke

Interesting thread. In Japan, they have fire exit signs embedded in the floor in some public places which are fully lit at all times of the day.

Sanosuke!

LAlady

great thread, and thank you!

i too was confused about what to really do if you're headed down the stairwell and encounter a thick layer of smoke that's settled.