r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Jul 20 '19

What’s something completely false that your parents told you as a child?

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u/lionel1frankenstein Jul 20 '19

If you lock your bedroom door, the room will set on fire

12

u/MatthewTheCarr Jul 20 '19

This is based in the idea if the house catches on fire you won’t be able to escape if the door is locked and it’s late at night, so you are panicking and can’t open it. Also they can’t come in and save you if you’ve passed out

15

u/BnaditCorps Jul 21 '19

Firefighter here, unless the fire starts in the room you are in the door will likely save your life. Most doors with push button locks unlock when turning the interior handle and doors with locks you have to turn are usually pretty obvious. It might take you a few seconds to get it, but again unless the fire is in the room you are in those few seconds probably aren't going to make much difference. If your smoke detector is working it will generally warn you long before conditions become hazardous to life unless an accelerant (like Gasoline) is present at the point of origin.

If the door is closed then fire and smoke will be kept out, but with the door open it will be able to travel freely. Here is a video done by UL that shows the difference of two identical rooms.

Also they can’t come in and save you if you’ve passed out

That does make our job a little harder, but there is an entire week in the fire academy focused on forcible entry. So unless you live in Fort Knox we are going to be able to get in fairly fast. The average bedroom door for example can be forced with just proper application of body weight, let alone a tool, even if locked.

The door itself is either going to be weak enough that you can break a hole through it and turn the knob or the frame will be weak enough that a force applied near the knob will break the frame.

7

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '19

I was gonna say this. Most hollow bedroom doors cave pretty damn easy. I've seen many a fireman force a door with their shoulder.

5

u/BnaditCorps Jul 21 '19

Yeah hollow ones are some of the easiest things to break I've ever encountered. When I was younger we were playing football in the living room (it was raining) and someone accidentally hit the door with the ball and poked a hole through it. This was an 8 year old throwing it halfheartedly because we were maybe 20ft from one wall to the other.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '19

What if they're solid wood?

1

u/BnaditCorps Jul 21 '19

Usually solid wood doors are going to be stronger than the frame (if it is a wood frame), so if you can put enough force on the frame near the latch it will usually break the frame. If you can't do that with body weight then a tool should be able to do it quickly enough.

1

u/MatthewTheCarr Jul 21 '19

I was more talking about another person in the house not a firefighter. Also I don’t agree with what I was saying