WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — You don't have to pay for it, you don't have to install it, but it's great fire protection. What is it? A closed door.
Winston-Salem firefighters said a closed door helped save a Triad family this week. Their bedroom door was shut and the fire was starved of oxygen. The adults and the child living in the home on Tredwell Drive are all alive, thanks in part, to the closed door.
The Winston-Salem Fire Department posted pictures of the bedroom and the door hoping to remind all of us to close our bedroom doors at night.
"The closed-door really does make a difference. You're talking 1,000 degrees in a room versus 100 degrees in your room. That's a 900-degree difference that can allow you to potentially survive. Also, the carbon monoxide levels will drop from potentially 10,000 parts per minute to 1,000 parts per minute," said Theresa Knops, Winston-Salem Fire Department Risk Reduction Education Specialist.
There is a YouTube video that is titled, "Close Before You Doze'. It was taped with a live audience and a makeshift home. The fire is in the living room. The room down the hall with the door closed has smoke coming in around the door edges. The other room has the door open and the smoke is starting to fill the top part of the room.
By the time they knock down the fire, the flames and smoke are billowing out from the living room window. When they drop the walls for the two rooms, the bedroom with the door closed looks just fine, but the bedroom that had the door open is toast. You wouldn't want to be in that room.
"Half of all fire deaths occur from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. when most people are sleeping. It doesn't require you to go out and buy anything it's all about taking an action and making a behavior change," said Knops.