A fire service has urged people to sleep with their doors closed alongside pictures from a house fire that show the damage on either side of a door.
South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue in the U.K. shared the shocking images in a video on TikTok that has over 400,000 views.
"Closing all internal doors will help reduce the spread of a fire as it helps limit the fire to the room of origin. [This] slows the spread of the fire and allows more time for occupants to evacuate," a spokesperson for South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue told Newsweek.
The pictures are from an incident they responded to in Sheffield, U.K., on Saturday, April 28.
Closing doors can cut off the supply of oxygen to the fire, starving it of fuel and slowing its growth.
While they explained that all internal doors can help slow fire from the place of origin, some doors are better than others.
"Specially designed fire doors are more adept at doing this as they contain fire-resistant materials such as steel which can withstand higher temperatures," said South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue.
According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), in a five-year period, house fires caused 2,620 deaths, 11,320 injuries and $6.9 billion in property damage in the U.S.
Cooking is the leading cause of home fires, responsible for 49 percent of incidents while lighters, candles, or matches were the heat source in an average of 24,900 home structure fires per year. These fires caused an annual average of 12 percent of these deaths.
In the comments on the TikTok video, people shared their thoughts and reactions to the advice and shocking pictures.
"As someone who had a house fire this is 100 percent accurate," said Lynsey. "Even with cheap basic doors they made a huge difference and stopped fire from spreading round my home. Forever grateful to fire brigade."
Yaz wrote: "I had a house fire when I was a kid and the only bedroom not affected was mine and my cousin as we kept our door closed."
Another TikTok user said the video would stay with them: "The visual impact of this was enough to remind me thank you," they wrote.
Others pointed out an unusual reason they would struggle to follow the advice.
"Unfortunately, my cat knows how to open my door," said one viewer. Another joked: "My cat says no."
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Alice Gibbs is a Newsweek Senior Internet Trends & Culture Reporter based in the U.K. For the last two years ... Read more
