Christopher Boulton: Okay Sarah. Well this is the pretty most dangerous area of your house, the kitchen area. And in the kitchen, obviously, you have got your cooker. We have a large number of fires involved in the kitchen and particularly in the cooker area. What size -- obviously, it is a nice large cooker here, but you have to lean over here for you to be able to reach the far side; make sure you have got no clothing hanging down there because as you lean over this is a gas cooker and therefore you could actually get the clothing to light from here. The other thing is, you see there are tea towels here. Make sure you don't put the tea towels in there, because they would be over the flame and it would be on fire.
The other thing is chip pans. If you got a chip pan, make sure you only fill it to about a third full. Make sure you put it away on the back of the cooker mainly because of the joint, and make sure you keep an eye on it all the time, you could be, okay. Also make sure you don't put things like these too close to the cooker. That can easily be like -- obviously the rest of the area completely can be involved in the fire.
Sarah Martin: This is the main fire in the house. We have done a lot especially in winter. So what would you suggest with the children particularly?
Christopher Boulton: Well obviously one of most important things with children is to make sure that they can't go close to this and make sure you get a guard, fire guard. It's quite popular now to have open fires in houses to these gas-fired ones. Also up with the guard there, what you have to make sure is you protect in case children want to throw things accidentally when you leave them on sofa, toys. They can easy get thrown to fire, and it can start, cause more fire. The other thing is I suggest that you put a cloth -- if you are going to even get closer just dry you clothes because this time even if it is a bit damp.
Make sure your clothes are as far enough away from the fire, so that the heat in the fire, radiating doesn't catch on to the clothes.
Sarah Martin: Well we have talked about the cooker and fire and how to deal with that. What would happen if the worst thing happened and a fire broke out?
Christopher Boulton: Well the most important thing is to be prepared for that to happen. So what we suggest is you are finding out your own escape, ready before any fire. That will allow you and your family to know what you are going to do if a fire happens. Hopefully a smoke detector will give you more time. So the best things to do is to come out with your escape plan before you start.
Think about the design of your house. Think about your normal routes around the house. So if you hear the smoke detector then what you can do you can take your children and escape through the normal means down the normal staircase. If the worse becomes the worst and you are all trapped in an upper room what we suggest is to go into the room, put something around the door area because that's where this smoke is likely come in, go to the front of the house if possible open the window and shout. So when the fire crew arrives they will know where you are.
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