You have all heard me talk about how important it is to sleep with your bedroom door closed at night – to benefit from the protection provided by a closed door.  I’ve been writing about fire doors on iDigHardware for 9 YEARS(!), trying to inform as many people as possible about the purpose of fire doors, why they need to be closed and latched when a fire occurs, and what is involved with an annual fire door inspection.

A few years ago, I started writing about the value of a closed bedroom door.  These are residential doors, not fire doors, but they can still provide valuable time for residents to find an escape route while the bedroom is protected from the heavy smoke and elevated temperature from a fire.  I first shared a video from CBS Los Angeles about surviving a house fire, then a story from NBC News asking why the message about sleeping with your door closed was not being shared in educational materials, and more than a year ago – UL’s announcement of their educational website – CloseYourDoor.org.

Since UL began their site, I have seen many news outlets sharing their message, including Good Morning America.  I have also seen fire departments posting photos, videos, and advice about closing your bedroom door.  Last week I shared some information about LifeDoor, a product that is designed to close your bedroom door if a fire occurs, which got a lot of attention at CES 2018.  Many of the articles about home fires now include information about closing your door…just today I read articles about a fire in Muskogee, Oklahoma* where open doors had a negative impact, and a fire in Chicago, where a woman survived because she was behind a closed bedroom door, and her grandson died in another room.

Since this issue is so important to me (I even took my kids on a field trip to an FDNY station), you can imagine how thrilled I was to receive a call from UL last week, asking how we could help spread UL’s message of “Close Before You Doze.”  WE – meaning me and you – the readers of iDigHardware.  We are involved in many different aspects of life safety and fire prevention, and I’m positive that we can reach a lot of people.

Right away I thought of some ways that I can personally spread the word:

• Continue to share news articles and videos on iDigHardware.com – with more than 35,000 visits per month and tens of thousands more impressions on social media, that’s a lot of potential.
• Add something about this to the Allegion Code Reference Guide – we give away thousands of these every year.
• Include a link on the Fire Door Inspection Card – as people are learning about fire door inspection maybe they will think about residential doors too.
• Add a slide to my presentations and spend a minute or two sharing some of UL’s statistics.

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What are some other ways to share this information?

What materials are needed from UL?

How can we get this added to the stop-drop-and-roll lessons taught in schools?

WWYD?  Please leave a comment so I can share your ideas with UL!

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Images:  Underwriters Laboratories

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* In Muskogee, “Firefighters said one reason the flames spread so quickly to other units is because several doors were left open.  ‘What we have is people in a panic and trying to escape, worried about the situation. It’s all a tragedy no one’s responding correctly but in that moment if you just shut the door – if your fire is located in the bedroom shut that door, if it’s in the apartment shut the door going out,’ Crow said.”

** In Chicago, ” ‘Is anybody in there?’ fire Capt. John Cronin yelled as he opened the bedroom door of an apartment.  He heard a woman say she was on the bed. Cronin closed the door so no smoke could get in and broke the window for fresh air.  He stayed with her while other firefighters worked to control the flames. In a front room, they found a man believed to be her grandson.”

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