Fire Safety when traveling

Recent experiences during my stay in Liverpool, England bought to light the importance of fire safety while travelling. During my stay, the hotel’s fire alarm became faulty, and caused a false alarm. A series of events followed that revealed poor management, a lack of training, and lack of emergency contact information. This resulted in the alarm not being fixed, causing everyone in the building at risk, if a fire happened.

Had I paid attention to the box by the front door of the hotel, I would have noticed that the fire alarm was faulty when I first arrived. A mixture of tiredness, poor eyesight and a faulty automatic door made me dismiss the “fault” warning notice on a box by the automatic door. I had made a mistake of presuming that this box, was for the automatic door; when it was actually for the fire alarm. Had I stopped to read the screen or list of faults I would have soon realised what it was for.

To help keep within my budget, I had chosen to book a windowless room – the cheapest option available at £10 a night. At the time, this seemed a bargain and I didn’t mind not having a window until the alarm sounded. Thoughts crossed my mind – What if the fire was outside my room? I would be unable to leave. Without a window, I had no way of escaping if door to my room was blocked. Sadly, we do not tend to think about these things until we find ourselves in a situation, where we wished we had.

To help stay safe when travelling, I recommend carrying out some safety checks to confirm if your accommodations fire safety is up to scratch.

Fire Safety Checks