IGX

I don't want to take this off topic but it relates to children's fire safety. My wife is involved in a safety program for kids 4-6 y.o. In some communities it's called Safety Town, in others it's called Safety Village. In my wife's case it's a two week program of a few hours a day and each day focuses on an area of safety for little children from: crossing the street, to good touch/bad touch, to stranger danger, to paramedics, police & etc.

Today was fire safety. The local VFD came and taught them all kinds of important stuff and it was fun. For example, there are kids who will hide from firemen who come to rescue them. Why? Because they're terrified that the firemen in their scary gear might be monsters. They get to learn about the gear and lose their fear in the program.

If you've got little kids, it's worth looking into one of these programs. My wife's is excellent but even a substandard one could save a kids life. They're pretty cheap too - at least my wife's is.

Are there bedrooms on the 3rd story?

You wanted me to let you know when you were being creepy again, Benji.

It's now.

But really it was an honest question. I don't want to waste my time watching that window all night if there was no bedroom behind it. Better I focus my attention on the lower floors.

bennyonesix wrote:But really it was an honest question. I don't want to waste my time watching that window all night if there was no bedroom behind it. Better I focus my attention on the lower floors.

Then he doesn`t need smoke/fire alarms.You could knock on tyhe door or bedroom window if you see something suspicious!

bennyonesix wrote:Are there bedrooms on the 3rd story?

Yes.

Turd,
Our house has been inspected and we don't have knob and tube. We also don't have aluminum wiring mixed in.

Both of the houses that burned had risk factors that ours doesn't. I don't know the exact cause of the first fire, but the house was less well maintained than ours and its sole occupant was elderly. The more recent fire was in a house that was divided into apartments and it was arson/homicide. I don't think either fire says much about the probability of our house catching fire. They simply highlight what the worst case scenario would look like.

You can go crazy worrying about this kind of thing but don't put too much faith in the inspection of the electrical that was done with your home inspection. If you pay a diligent electrician to spend a few hours opening boxes and checking the condition of the whole house you'd have a better idea. (Unfortunately without rewiring you're never 100% sure.)

It's a shame that arc fault breakers don't appear to actually work, that would be a nice upgrade if they only worked.

Sometimes you luck out rewiring Victorian homes, most were built with balloon framing. This makes them burn faster but it makes it easy to run wires in the outside walls, especially if they are uninsulated.

If you have blown in cellulose insulation, that's helpful, it may even count as a fire block, but there is a caveat - if the stuff gets wet (roof leak or etc.) the fire retardant can wash off and you just have walls full of shredded paper, that definitely isn't a fire block. Either way it would only be on the outside walls, not interior walls or ceilings.

If the house is uninsulated, I have heard about a new expanding foam they can fill the walls with, it is supposed to be a very good insulation and help with fire too, I don't really know much about it. That might be a good thing for the outside walls. However once it's in, you're not going to be running any plumbing, wiring, cabling, etc. in those walls in the future without major surgery.

As for the fire escape, can you mount a fixed ladder to the wall in a spot you could get to from that second floor roof?

Pinky wrote:

bennyonesix wrote:Are there bedrooms on the 3rd story?

Yes.

Turd,
Our house has been inspected and we don't have knob and tube. We also don't have aluminum wiring mixed in.

Both of the houses that burned had risk factors that ours doesn't. I don't know the exact cause of the first fire, but the house was less well maintained than ours and its sole occupant was elderly. The more recent fire was in a house that was divided into apartments and it was arson/homicide. I don't think either fire says much about the probability of our house catching fire. They simply highlight what the worst case scenario would look like.

Sounds good. ccrow makes a good point about what home inspections catch though-- only the obvious stuff.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S41Mnc8FYo4[/youtube]