Any thoughts about suppling a fire blanket to tenants?

Did you see the infomercial? Its mainly for relatively small stove fires,.people do the dumbest things when it happens like throw water on a grease fire, or a toaster fire etc.

For those fires I think its a better choice than a fire extinguisher

I had a big fire once,..fighting with my insurance company that wanted to pay a low amount, I decided to hire a independent claims adjustor,..they hired builders, engineers, etc,and how long this took and lost rent $ ,..well,.. After looking at all the information the judge . Really threw the book at the insurance co..The Indepantant claims adjustor co .got me mre than double what my insurance company wanted to pay,.over 120 K,

So yes it "kinda" was to my advantage,..but soon after the insurance payout,..all the rest of my properties got a substantial raise in insurance rates. (Several difference Ins companies.)

But they all share information thru the "C L U E" reports

and you might son be paying the :gain" back and more if you hold your properties for a whie.

It may also effect any of the new properties,..Doesn't do much good to change companies as they also look at loses,..sure they may low ball your rate for a while to get you under their wing..but then bump those rates up.

I am told that about 1/3 of all kitchen fires spread when that frying pan fire is attempted to be carried outside before it gets too hot and dropped onto the floor.

From a practical stand point, most house fires are only small fires. The question becomes, do I as a landlord feel comfortable relying on my tenant with limited to no training to combat that fire.

A fire blanket for my own house isn't a bad idea I suppose. But I will not rely on my residents to fight a fire. I have a hard time with them doing something routine like changing furnace filters.

I disagree with "The questions becomes, do I as a landlord feel comfortable relying on my tenant..."

The question is: am I increasing or decreasing my potential liability?

I'm with NE on this one. We supply what is legally required. No less, no more.

I looked into fire blankets a few months to a year back.

They can be good, if they are where someone can get to them in a panic.

They are not all made the same either. Some of them come with gloves to wear before touching them. This is because of the exposed fiberglass. Now maybe not all of the blankets are this way, not sure.

If a fire broke out would a tenant remain calm enough to go thru the steps needed for said blankets?

Find the blanket, put on the gloves, open the blanket, place the blanket over the fire to smother the flames, wait until the flames are dead, remove the blanket, survey the situation.

Some of mine might but you never know how people will react in a situation like that.

My daughter started a little stove top fire and doused the place with an extinguisher. Not a grease fire, not a big fire. She fell back on training which was to use an extinguisher. Not needed. Made a hell of a mess.

We do supply extinguishers and fire blankets. We try not to rent to dumb as posts tenants. Right now we have 3 stellar tenant families and 2 mediocre ones.

In the town we own rentals, the town will charge you to tear down what's left of the building to the tune of at least 25K. As the previous charity woman found out after having a fire then handing over the keys to us in frustration.

I think the people here that are negative to a fire blanket

never looked at the posted link, or any other examples of them.

Easy to use for kitchen fires, even more so than using a fire extinguisher that we have to provide.

That company that is represented in the commercial can provide a hook in which to hang it near , but not to close of a potential fire.

So I would not rather have a tenant run out of my building with a stove fire ,or worse, they try to but out a grease fire or a toster oven with water as its often the first thing they try,..often making it worse .

I will give them another look.

If they do not require gloves or getting pricked by fiberglass I will consider them again.

No I did not watch the video, but I will.

WMH: To answer your question of why not for something like a fire extinguisher...

Because it then becomes your responsibility to check it (or, in some areas, have it be checked annually by a professional).

Laws are weird. Liability is sometimes weird. Let's say the tenant's kids take it outside one day and use it for fun. Their parents don't notice. They put it back empty in the rental.

Now a fire starts. The tenants run to the hallway or closet or wherever you keep the extinguisher, try to use it, can't figure out why it isn't working in a moment of panic before they finally realize it is empty, and are badly burned because they went back towards the fire with it getting ready to use an empty extinguisher.

Do you think you have any liability for that empty extinguisher and their burns? You may not, but their lawyer certainly will. Especially if the kids never admit to playing with it.

Now, that being said, we actually DO provide some fire extinguishers because I think they are a good thing for people to have. But to answer your question of "Why not?" -- there certainly ARE liability reasons to not provide things. Maybe you've decided that it is still worth it (again, I have in some cases too). But there simply ARE things to be concerned about that are reasonable answers to your "why not?" question.

I think if you look at that link and watch what kind of fires its used on, and how it's used, you might have a different feeling about them, Its not for slightly bigger fires that an fire extinguisher would be used, The point is a stop a fire to not get out of control.

A small fire yes a blanket, slightly larger,a fire extinguisher, a bit larger,..yes get out of the house, but one just has to see how many people die in a fire each year.Most of them have not died fighting the fire, but being surprised by one already out of control. The reason for adequate and functional smoke dectors,..best a dual photoelectric and ionization sealed 10 year ( I realize many don't last that long but tenants can't remove the batteries to run something else)

But often I have found many LL's don't want to spend the

extra money for them (although I see the prices have come way down now)

Hey -- feel free to print out a flyer with a QR code link to the video to hand to tenants when they sign the lease. If they want to buy a blanket, then so be it!

JOHN,

I still think the LL is at a great disadvantage with a fire, despite how well you THINK you have been paid at first,

I have talked to a few firemen that said some try water,..tries baking soda, struggled with a fire extinguisher, before it got more out of control.