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Parenting

24th Oct 2020

Fireman shares post urging parents to close children’s bedroom doors – and here’s why

Trine Jensen-Burke

fire safety

This is an eye-opener.

As parents, our children’s safety is paramount, which is no doubt why this fireman’s post recently went viral.

A US firefighter took to Facebook to share two photos of different doors that’d been in a fire – one that’d been left open and one that was closed – to show parents the dramatic difference closing your child’s bedroom door at night could make.

The post, which was uploaded to the Facebook page of Cold Harbor Fire Department in New York, in the U.S.A, says closing your child’s door at night ‘could save a life’.

According to the fireman, keeping your child’s door closed at night can be the difference between life and death, as it can prevent flames and smoke from spreading quickly in the event of a fire.

The post has two images attached. In the first image, we are shown the first door, which was shut when a fire broke out – and that hadn’t been engulfed by the flames. In the second photo, we see a second door, or more so, the charred remains of another door, in the same house, which had been left often during the fire.

“As a parent, it’s hard to convince little kids to sleep with the door closed, they always want it open just a little,” the fireman explains. “I do a lot of fire prevention at schools, so one thing I try and stress to the kids is how important it is to sleep with the doors closed.”

‘Read and see the pictures below to see what a difference closed doors can make.”

He goes on to explain:

“This morning members of New Fairfield’s Fire Departments along with mutual aid departments responded to a residential structure fire. The homeowners and family dog are all doing well.”

“The photos below are a great example of the importance of keeping bedroom doors closed while sleeping. The door pictured in both photos is a hollow core door to a bedroom. While the front of the door is severely damaged the closed door protected the bedroom and its contents. If this were an occupied bedroom the closed door could have saved a life.”

Did you know this, parents? Were you aware that it is safer to sleep with the doors closed?