DES MOINES, Iowa — In 2017, four people were killed in an apartment fire in Des Moines on Polk Boulevard. Des Moines Fire Marshal Jonathan Lund says some of the people rescued did something that greatly increased their chances of making it out alive.
"One of the things we saw was apartments that had their door closed, were relatively untouched by fire damage," he said. "We were able to perform rescues at that incident through an apartment that had a closed door and they were on the same floor as the fire."
According to firefighters, the simple step of keeping doors closed, especially while you sleep, could be the difference between life and death.
"Fire needs fuel to consume and it needs oxygen or air," Lund said. "And if you can compartmentalize your house by closing doors sleeping with your door closed, you limit the amount of fresh air that the fire has available."
The UL Fire Safety Research Institute performed a controlled burn to test this theory. Two bedrooms with the exact same layout and size are tested in a house fire.
The only difference: one room has its door wide open while the other room has its door shut. The room with the open door suffers extreme fire and smoke damage, while the room with the closed doors survives relatively untouched.
"In today's homes they're full of synthetic materials," said UL Fire Safety Research Institute Vice President of Research Steve Kerber. "They have open floor plans and all of the things that work against keeping a fire small. So we've learned through our research that the time you have to get out of a home is greatly reduced to less than three minutes."
That's why firefighters want you to remember this simple step: Close before you doze.
"If they can get that message out change that behavior, we're going to see a lot less lives lost due to fire," Kerber said.
If a fire breaks out in your home while you are awake, escape if you can. You should try to shut the doors to the room where the fire is, which can help contain the fire instead of allowing it to spread.