Kiwis urged to keep flammable substances away from living quarters

Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) is warning Kiwis to keep hazardous substances away from sleeping areas.

The advice follows a Coroner’s report into a fatal fire in Christchurch. According to FENZ fire risk management national manager Peter Gallagher, the report highlighted the dangers of using a garage as accommodation and storing hazardous substances in an area used for sleeping.

Gallagher detailed the case of a 50-year-old man who died from burns sustained in a fire that engulfed the garage of a Christchurch home on April 11, 2017. He said the fire was most likely started by smoking in bed, and accelerated by a number of hazardous substances. The garage was found to be used to store petrol based products, and items such as butane cans, an LPG cylinder and even gun powder – items that should never be stored in an area in which people sleep.

“In this environment, the fire would have spread rapidly and become fully involved in about two minutes,” he said.

FENZ noted the garage also did not have a working smoke alarm.

“It’s difficult to know how much this contributed to the incident but it’s important to note that when you’re asleep, you lose your sense of smell, so your alarm is your only voice,” Gallagher added.

Here are tips, as outlined on the FENZ website, that brokers can pass to clients on what to do in a house fire:

• If there are others in the house, shout “FIRE, FIRE, FIRE!”
• If there is smoke, get on your hands and knees and crawl low and fast to escape smoke. The smoke will be hot and poisonous, and if you breathe it in, it can kill you. Remember: Get Down, Get Low, Get out;
• If you can, close doors behind you to stop the fire spreading;
• If you cannot get out of the house, close the door of the room you are in and put a towel under it to stop the smoke coming in. Go to the window and yell ‘FIRE, FIRE, FIRE!’. Wait for help;
• If you cannot open a window (if it has security stays, for example), consider using a chair or other furniture to break the glass. Use bedding to cover any remaining sharp pieces of glass to escape unharmed;
• As soon as it is safe, call 111 immediately either from a mobile phone or a neighbour’s house;
• Meet at your agreed safe meeting place — somewhere safely away from the house.