Living Safely in an Apartment Block: The Fire-Safety Guide for Shared Buildings

Most fire-safety advice imagines a single house. But a huge share of Georgians live in apartment blocks — and a shared building changes everything. Here, your safety is tied to your neighbours, to a stairwell you all depend on, and to one critical decision most people have never thought through: in a fire, should you run, or stay put? This guide answers that, and everything around it.

Why shared buildings need their own rules

In a block of flats, fire and smoke don't respect your front door. They travel through the roof, the walls, the ventilation, and above all the common stairwell — the single protected route everyone uses to escape. One careless neighbour, or one faulty wire two floors up, can put smoke into *your* only way out. That's why apartment safety is partly personal and partly collective.

Keep the escape route clear — it's the whole ballgame

In most buildings the stairwell is the only safe way out. Protect it:

• No clutter in stairwells or corridors. Bikes, prams, old furniture, boxes, shoes, rubbish — all of it is both fuel for fire and an obstacle when people are fleeing in the dark. Never store gas cylinders in a stairwell or corridor.
• Keep fire doors closed. Those heavy landing and corridor doors are designed to hold back smoke. Never prop or wedge them open, and never remove their self-closing hinges. An open fire door can turn a survivable fire into a deadly one by letting smoke fill the stairs.
• Don't block exits or fire-escape routes, even temporarily. The exit at the bottom of the stairs must open and be reachable.

Never use the lift

In a fire, a lift can lose power and stop between floors, trapping you, and the shaft acts like a chimney, drawing smoke upward. Always use the stairs — and make sure children and visitors know this too.

Know your building before anything happens

• Walk your route to the exit, counting doors or landings, so you could find it blind in smoke.
• Find out if there's a second stairway or exit and how to reach it.
• Note where your nearest fire extinguisher or hose reel is, if the building has one.
• If your building has a posted evacuation plan (required by law in many non-residential and mixed buildings), read it.

The decision that saves lives: get out, or stay put?

This is the single most important thing to understand about apartment fires:

*If the fire is in your own flat:*

• Get everyone out immediately.
• Close (don't lock) the door behind you to contain the fire and smoke.
• Alert neighbours as you go, and call 112 from outside.
• Never go back in for anything.

*If the fire is elsewhere in the building, and the corridor/stairwell is full of smoke:*

• It is often safer to stay in your flat than to enter thick smoke, which can overcome you in seconds.
• Close your door and seal the gap at the bottom with cloth (wet if possible).
• Go to a window or balcony for fresh air.
• Call 112, give your exact flat and floor, and tell them you're staying put. Signal from the window so crews can find you.
• A solid door and walls can protect you for a long time — long enough for firefighters to reach you.

Deciding this *in advance* is what prevents the fatal instinct to run blindly into a smoke-filled stairwell.

Look out for each other

• As you evacuate, bang on doors to wake and warn neighbours.
• Know who on your floor might need help — elderly residents, disabled neighbours, families with babies — and agree informally who will check on them.
• If you can't help someone safely yourself, tell the 112 operator exactly which flat they're in.

Your own protection comes first

In a shared building you can't rely on hearing a neighbour's alarm through concrete. So:

• Fit your own smoke detector (and a carbon-monoxide detector if you have any gas or fuel appliance) — near the bedrooms.
• Keep a way to stop a small fire — a fire blanket for the kitchen, and a fire-suppression ball or extinguisher within reach. Stopping a small fire in your flat protects the whole building.

Your apartment checklist

• [ ] Stairwell and corridor completely clear (no clutter, no gas cylinders)
• [ ] Fire doors closed and self-closers intact
• [ ] You know your exit route — and a second one if it exists
• [ ] Everyone knows: never the lift
• [ ] Everyone knows the "get out vs stay put" rule
• [ ] Your own smoke/CO detector fitted and tested
• [ ] A fire blanket / suppression ball within reach

A shared building can be just as safe as a house — safer, even — when everyone plays their part. Helping you play yours is exactly what ORDEX is for.

Note: Georgian fire-safety law (Technical Regulation on Fire Safety, Govt Decree №370) requires evacuation plans and alarms in many shared and non-residential buildings; keeping common escape routes clear is both a safety essential and a legal expectation. Emergencies: 112.