Whenever i open a paper or turn on the news there is a tragic story about a house fire I know smoke alarms are the law now but surely something needs to be done about this.
Don't know what sort of reaction i'm expecting from this post but felt like i had to vent my spleen.
Location: From Bury,Manchester To Jimboomba, Brisbane
Posts: 6,304
Im just watching the news about the one in melbourne its horrendous.I suppose the majority completely burn down because they are wood with wood frame as to the cause ,the majority seem to be human error but who knows? A local family lost their home just before xmas when it was struck by lightening,its scarey to think about really,
Cal x
Our next door but one neighbour had a very lucky escape a couple of weeks back when the son thoughtlessly discarded his cig butt. The fence went up like a tinder box but, fortunately, the property adjoining belonged to a fireman who had all the right gear very close to hand. We have watched another house in Sanctuary Lakes burn to the ground in 10 minutes flat - long before the fire brigade showed up. Up until these incidents, we had smoke alarms but no fire extinguishers... It made us re-think our strategy and we talked to the children about getting out in case of fire...
The Footscray fire this morning where 3 Indian students were killed is believed to have ben started by a computer.
It seems like I will be returning to my youth! I'm American and when I married a brit and moved to the UK 12 years ago, I was shocked at how few house fires occurred (obviously due to concrete & brick construction. I was used to hearing sirens on and off at least a couple times a day for scares or small fires or full on blasts. It is definitely a timber frame downfall but at least you don't get mundic block!
I think you will find that there are more house fires in Summer & Winter than any other time, things overheat in Summer & people leave fires on in Winter, especially electric heaters near childrens beds etc, a lot of fires in Oz are caused by human error, especially at this time of year, people drinking themselves silly and falling asleep smoking, like the bloke near Cronulla [NSW]yesterday.
A lot of houses are like tinder boxes because of the heat we've had so far this Summer, some people never turn things off at the plug when they have finished with them, so they can overheat, we never leave our computer on stand by anymore since a computer burst into flames in my wifes office, an electric jug burst into flames at a small workshop near us some time ago, so I think prevention is better than cure.
The thing that gets me, is the amount of smokers that still throw their butts out of the car window these days, it is an offence & can cause massive bush fires, loss of life etc.
We can all be stupid at times. We took the battery out of our downstairs smoke alarm because it was going off when my wife was cooking ( a bit of a reflection on her burning...i mean cooking!)
Having seen so many people die in fires this year I think it is time to be smart and put up with the odd siren going off and be able to be sure that we will be warned if the worst should happen.
I did the same Liam, [wife cooking],the heat that we have had this past week has been setting ours off too, so I removed the batteries again, I was paranoide last night after reading these posts, everytime the dog barked I was up quick sharp, bloody cats, but maybe I will either get new alarms or put the batteries back.
These post have also made me think. I will be buying a couple of fire extinguishers this w/e and have also started to turn the TV, computer ect.. off at the mains.
I know smoke alarms are the law now but surely something needs to be done about this. 
