Duncan wrote: ↑Sat Apr 27, 2019 2:23 pm The first thing you do if you smell smoke is grab a towel get it and your self wet while standing in the shower

The firefighters may have cut the water to use for fighting the fire. Don't waste time, lift the toilet tank lid and use the water inside.

Like any emergency situation don't grab anything, just get your ass outta there ASAP. You really wanna risk the chance of dying because you can't bear to leave your laptop behind

Captain Bonez wrote: ↑Sat Apr 27, 2019 3:37 pm Like any emergency situation don't grab anything, just get your ass outta there ASAP. You really wanna risk the chance of dying because you can't bear to leave your laptop behind

Ask yourself..if you were a firefighter would you put on breathing apparatus before you went into a situation where there was smoke and fire.

Duncan wrote: ↑Sat Apr 27, 2019 2:23 pm The first thing you do if you smell smoke is grab a towel get it and your self wet while standing in the shower and make sure you have footwear on before trying to escape from a fire. Wrap the wet towel around your head and face to help breathing and your hair catching on fire.

I get what you're saying but it seems counter-intuitive to stand in the shower while your apartment burns down around you and with every passing second your chances of getting out alive are diminishing drastically.

I think that while there is a lot of good advice regarding what to do in a fire, each fire is different, each apartment is different and each situation is different. As the OP said, the most important thing is to have a plan of action ahead of time based on your own personal situation.

Kuroneko wrote: ↑Sat Apr 27, 2019 3:49 pm

Captain Bonez wrote: ↑Sat Apr 27, 2019 3:37 pm Like any emergency situation don't grab anything, just get your ass outta there ASAP. You really wanna risk the chance of dying because you can't bear to leave your laptop behind

You can go back after the fire is out and have yourself some
tasty char grilled cat

Fortunately I didn't have to count steps : Up to the landing and then all the way down -- by feel. But no, I didn't feel the door before opening it, which was stupid.
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Let me speak for a moment to the wet towel / wet clothes idea, as respectfully and graciously as possible because I hate when these things turn into umberage contests when the conversation itself doesn't merit that.
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In my particular case, following that advice would have resulted in non-survival, but that's because I caught the very last window for safely transiting the fire. By the time I had reached the street, the fire had "flashed over" and thus any delay would have meant I was trapped above the fire inside a natural chimney, and I would have been killed.
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I imagine that no one piece of advice is universal -- not least because the right thing to do seems so dependent on the geography of the situation -- but I do remember (from seeing it on more than one television program about building fires) that many or most fire deaths could be prevented with more urgency.
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Speaking only from my personal experience in the affirmative, I would say: Don't wet anything in the shower because it's not worth risking the extra time. Instead, have a mentally rehearsed grab-it list, as short as possible, and get out.
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And before the grab-it list strikes anyone as self-contradictory, understand that the benefit of the list is that it psychologically prepares you to calmly expedite your own egress. Apparently a great many of the 9/11 victims powered down their computers before trying to leave; a "go plan" would have prevented such frivolity because it would have *seemed* frivolous before the fact.
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Again, no disrespect or shade is intended or implied; I'm merely saying that, for my own personal experience of escaping from this fire, stopping at the shower would have left me dead.

...Oh, and in my case staying low made no difference because I was above the fire.

Duncan wrote: ↑Sat Apr 27, 2019 2:37 pm

phkachhouk wrote: ↑Sat Apr 27, 2019 2:31 pm

Duncan wrote: ↑Sat Apr 27, 2019 2:23 pm The first thing you do if you smell smoke is grab a towel get it and your self wet while standing in the shower and make sure you have footwear on before trying to escape from a fire. Wrap the wet towel around your head and face to help breathing and your hair catching on fire.

Or just get out the house.

No... It's to get out safely.

No point in leaving your apartment if you walk into a wall of flame or suffocate from smoke as soon as you leave.

I smell smoke all the time. I don’t automatically go and grab a towel and have a shower!

Although that’s such a bad idea in this heat.

Btw, where can I buy smoke detectors? Tried Aeon Mall, Sorya, Thai Huot and IBC so far. No dice.