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A firefighter has shared an important message for parents and revealed the one thing they should never do.

In a message posted to the Cold Spring Harbor Fire Department Facebook page an emergency responder revealed how shutting a child’s bedroom door can make all the difference in the event of a house fire.

The firefighter wrote: “As a parent it’s hard to convince little kids to sleep with the door closed, they always want it open just a little.

“I do a lot of fire prevention at schools, so one thing I try and stress to kids is, how important it is to sleep with the doors closed.”

They go on to explain how there was recently a fire in a neighbouring area and share photos from the blaze – one showing a blackened, charred door, the other showing the back of the door which is still white.

“The homeowners and family dog are all doing well,” they continue. “The photos below are a great example of the importance of keeping bedroom doors closed while sleepng.

“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.”

They added: “The cause and origin of the fire are under investigation and believed to be accidental in nature.”

The post has since gone viral with over 5,80o shares and hundreds of comments.

Now I am freaking out! I have always left my boys bedroom doors (and my own!) ajar overnight. I hate sleeping with the door closed.

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  • It depends. if the fire started in electrical in the childs room then it would be better the door was ajar surely

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  • I don’t know, I would worry about them not being able to open the door to get out if there was a fire. Handle to hot, stress/panicking causing them to not function properly (as can happen to anyone). I realise parent/s or caregivers would do their best to open the door and rescue them, but anything can happen. Adults might be passed out from smoke inhalation or trapped themselves. I do leave my door open ajar as my cat dominates my room and uses me for warmth at night. I also wonder if a smoke alarm was going off, how a closed door might muffle the sound more? I will have to look more into this. Interesting article indeed!

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  • Wow, this is good information to have. My younger one won’t sleep if the door was to be shut all the way..

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  • I never even thought of this. We always have our doors open. Our kids bedroom doors were always open when they were little so we could easily hear them if they woke up. As teenagers, they would close their doors

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  • in summer we leave the doors open for the air conditioner to get to the rooms and winter the same for the heat, I had 1 child get out of bed when younger and his door was closed, he fainted after vomiting at the back of the door and we had to climb through his window to get in, after that we never closed it

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  • My kids always have had their doors closed, but we leave ours open since can hear them.

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  • We always sleep with doors open – especially the kids rooms and I thought it would be safer. Makes for an interesting chat with the family

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  • WOW! We always sleep with the doors open, in every room. It makes me somehow feel safer. Good to know though.

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  • I have always been big on closing doors. Now I know that there’s a really good reason to!

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  • I don’t get it…what does a closed door do in this case?

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  • Always thought it would be easier to get out of the house if the door was open and you didn’t have to fumble with a hot door knob – similar to not dead locking the front door once you are inside the house. Just shows how wrong you can be.

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  • We recently met a fireman who told us the same thing, all my kids have their doors shut at night.

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  • Omg…..we all sleep with our doors open. Perhaps i need to change and start shutting doors

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  • I sleep with mine shut to keep the pets out (four legged ones), but will be changing what my children do though.

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  • SO obvious isn’t it! We tend to shut all inner doors when we go on holiday just in case there is a fire that goes through the house; it would slow it down and give someone a chance to put it out. But while we do shut the bedrooms at night I never actually consciously considered it could save a life. Great tip.

    Reply

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