A closed door can be an effective barrier against deadly levels of carbon monoxide, smoke, and flames, and may give you more time to respond to the smoke alarm. In fact, there can be a 900-degree temperature difference between a room with an open door and one with a closed door. While a room with an open door may reach 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit a room with a closed door may only reach 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Make closing doors at night part of your bedtime routine.

What is the “evolving fire environment?”

Publicizing new fire safety techniques for preventing its spread is more essential today than ever, the team’s research revealed, due to what Kerber’s calls the “evolving fire environment.” He explains how “We started to see that the furnishings, open layout, and construction materials of modern homes allow the fire to spread and become more toxic much faster. It all leads to less time to get out of the home.”

My first piece of advice is “Sleep with the bedroom door closed,” Kerber continues. “If there is a fire, there is no time to act.” Something that came up “again, and again” in FSRI’s fire safety research was “just how much safer” the simulated occupant would be when they were behind a closed door.

“If you are a parent with children in the home and that smoke alarm goes off”, advises Kerber, “potentially you cannot get to your children’s room because you’re cut off by smoke. If you close their door before you go to bed, if you’ve already put that safety barrier in place, then you know your children have longer to survive in that situation.”

Saving lives starts with simple steps.

Based on these findings, ‘Close Your Door’ encourages those both trapped in a room during a fire as well as those who can safely leave a home to close as many doors as possible. “People think, ‘Well, there’s smoke in my house. I want to let the smoke out,’” says Kerber. “Yes, you’re letting the smoke out, but you’re letting the air in, and that’s where the problem occurs. With the doors and windows closed, the fire won’t have oxygen to burn and it’s going to stay right there, giving other people in the house more time to get out and helping protect your property.”

Kerber hopes that ‘Close Your Door’ finds the same cultural ubiquity for fire safety awareness in our modern era as ‘Stop, Drop & Roll.’ “What we need is a modern message,” says Kerber. “If Stop, Drop & Roll is for when your clothes are on fire, ‘Close Your Door’ is for when your house is on fire, and you cannot get out. It’s the modern version of what needs to be done.”