What to do when you're inside a burning building

What to Do When You're Inside a Burning Building

6/14/2017

Just be calm and crawl to safety
By J. Delano

Photo by J. Delano

Nobody wants to get trapped inside a burning room, house or building. Nonetheless, fires happen and most of the time it's by surprise.

For example, the number of fire calls in Singapore reached 4,114 in 2016 which to their credit was an all time low since 1978 according to the Singapore Civil Defense Force. Almost seven out of ten of those fire calls happened in a residential setting with most of them rubbish or trash fires followed by unattended cooking.

In the Philippines, the Bureau of Fire Protection reported 19,292 fire incidents for 2016. The top three reasons for fire were said to be electrical fires, open flame combustion and a lighted cigarette butt.

If this incendiary situation does happen to you, Mr. Noel Ison of Alpha 3 Crisis Management based in Manila, a twenty year veteran in security and safety preparedness, recommended three things to know and put to heart.

He said, "In a fire, its important to sound the alert, evacuate, and then respond appropriately."

Alert! Alert!

There's no smoke alarm and you've already noticed a potential scorcher where you are, you can sound the alert by pressing or pulling the fire alarm. This gives everybody inside time.

Calling the neighborhood fire station or emergency numbers like 911 will be paramount because you'll definitely need help especially if the fire goes out of control. The irony is it sometimes does. Even if you know how to use a fire extinguisher, two or twenty more extinguishers will work better.

Know Your Emergency Exits

In seconds, the fire has grown wild and crept up some drapes, curtains and wooden furniture, the always alluded "light material". Also, you've already called the fire department but you happen to be caught inside. What do you do? Evacuate and follow the map.

"Have a map to get familiar with your surroundings," Ison said.

The emergency map will tell you where the emergency exits are at the hotel you're staying or the office you work in. Next time, you'll never feel stupid looking intently at those floor exit maps again. The occasional fire drill actually keeps all the occupants ready and familiar with maps, the alarms and the exits. That also goes for your own home. Do drills and escape routes at your house.

There's Fire so There's Smoke

You can smell it, the smoke. That's a gigantic red flag. Now, get on the floor, marine!

"It's not the fire that kills, it's the smoke," quipped Ison. He then added, "You have to crawl. There's two feet of clean air on the ground."

Hot air and smoke naturally rises which gives a couple of feet of cooler breathable air at floor level. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) of the United States also said that fires eat up the oxygen, superheat the air and dispense some of the toxins from those light materials, a triple whammy that can lead to impaired judgment, dizziness or even worse death.

How does knowing or reading the map be helpful amid all the smoke? While your body is pressed to the floor crawling to safety, you can count the doors until the emergency exit.

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Back of the hand testing the doorknob. Photo by J. Delano.

Backhand first

You've reached a door that could very well be your escape route or you're just about to leave your room. Will it be smooth sailing from here to safety?

"Feel the doorknob first... by using the back of your hand," suggested Ison.

There might be a fire beyond the door that you are not aware of and it is heating the door knob. Much worse, electrical wiring may have fallen on the knob, making it charged. A shock would force your hand to squeeze the knob more prolonging ahem the experience. That's why the back of the hand is quite handier.

What's incredibly worse is a backdraft, the oxygen from your side of the door will feed the fire on the other side causing a strong burst of fire.

So what if your clothes were on fire? Remember three words: STOP, DROP and ROLL. The rolling back and forth will smother the oxygen and help suppress the fire.

You can reach Mr. Noel Ison on his LinkedIn.

About the Author

J. Delano is an amateur photographer, story buff and occasional CPR stand-in.

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