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Station 6 of 7 · Guide 5 of 6

Deadlocks at night: how do you get out if there is a fire?

A fire service treats the lock as part of the way out, and its advice and the police pages can be read together on one night at the same door.

The plan, full width: the wall edge to edge, station 6 lit, the other stations dimmed and numbered OUTSIDE INSIDE Station 1: Someone may be in the house: what do the police say to do? 1 Station 2: Locked out, or the keys are gone: who might hold a spare, and what about the old ones? 2 Station 3: Is a broken lock in a rental an urgent repair? 3 Station 4: Can I change the locks when I rent? 4 Station 5: Someone may be in the house: what do the police say to do? 5 Station 6, this guide: Deadlocks at night: how do you get out if there is a fire? 6 Deadlocks and getting out Station 7: After a break-in: what happens tonight, tomorrow and in the weeks after? 7 The plan as a strip: the wall across the phone, station 6 lit OUTSIDE INSIDE Station 1: Someone may be in the house: what do the police say to do? 1 Station 2: Locked out, or the keys are gone: who might hold a spare, and what about the old ones? 2 Station 3: Is a broken lock in a rental an urgent repair? 3 Station 4: Can I change the locks when I rent? 4 Station 5: Someone may be in the house: what do the police say to do? 5 Station 6, this guide: Deadlocks at night: how do you get out if there is a fire? 6 Deadlocks and getting out Station 7: After a break-in: what happens tonight, tomorrow and in the weeks after? 7

What the fire service says about locks

The Tasmania Fire Service treats the lock as part of the way out, and it says so in one line. It recommends that locks and windows open easily from inside, so the way out is quick.

Its best answer is the lock itself: a deadlock you can open from inside without a key. While anyone is home it says not to deadlock a door unless the key stays in the lock, and it asks households to cut down the number of keys needed to open a deadlock.

The reason it gives is the dark. A fire leaves the house black and full of smoke, and keys become hard to find. The same page puts smoke alarms first in the wider picture, as the early warning that buys the time to get out, and its last line is not about the lock at all: build a home fire escape plan, talk it through with everyone in the house, and practise it at least twice a year.

From the Tasmania Fire Service, Home security.

Where the advice pulls two ways

Victoria Police ask for a deadlock on every external door and window, and add the other half in the same breath: while you are inside, the deadlock should be undone, so a fire cannot put it between you and the way out.

The fire service's own state police page pulls the other way on the key. Tasmania Police say never to leave keys in the locks, and to keep them somewhere inside the home that is easy to reach, because an emergency may need you out of the house in a hurry. The fire service says a deadlocked door wants the key in the lock while anyone is home.

Read together, the two positions are not a contradiction, and the lock is what resolves them. A deadlock that opens from inside without a key satisfies both pages at once: the key never has to be found. That is why the fire service calls it the best option, and it is the same conclusion Victoria's tenancy page reaches from the other direction, where a lock that always needs a key to open from the inside is not recommended.

From Victoria Police, Preventing home burglaries, Tasmania Police, Home/residential safety tips, the Tasmania Fire Service, and Consumer Affairs Victoria, Locks and security.

One night, door by door

The same handful of rules, read across the doors of one home, at the hour when they matter.

  • The front door

    The test for the front door is the one the fire service sets: can it be opened from inside without hunting for a key? Where a door is deadlocked and the key is the only way through, the fire service says the key stays in the lock while anyone is home. Tasmania Police answer the same moment differently, asking for a key stored somewhere inside the home that is easy to get to, because an emergency may need you out of the house in a hurry. A lock you can open from inside without a key is what makes both answers true at once.

  • The back door

    The back door carries the same rule. A deadlock that opens from inside without a key is the best option on any external door, and where the door slides rather than swings, Tasmania Police ask for double-sided locking handles and extra bolts on the inside. Solid core doors with deadlocks are what the same page asks for on the way in.

  • The door nearest where you sleep

    This is where the question is decided. A fire at night leaves the house dark and thick with smoke, and keys become hard to find, and this is the door you will reach for while half awake. The fire service keeps the count of keys down for the same reason.

Read from the Tasmania Fire Service, Home security and Tasmania Police, Home/residential safety tips.

If you rent

Victoria's minimum standards name the hardware. An external door has to have a working deadlatch with at least one cylinder, and openable windows need a working lock or a latch. The same list carries the warning that matters at night: a lock that always needs a key to open from the inside is not recommended.

Western Australia's rental page describes the deadlock it expects on a main entry: a single or double cylinder lock, where the single cylinder one turns open from the inside with a knob or handle. It can be separate from the door handle or built into the handset, the main entry has to lock with a key, and a flat above the ground floor still needs a main entry lock, with a lock on any window that can be reached, such as one facing a public walkway.

Changing a lock to get one that opens without a key follows the same rules as any other change: in Victoria the rental provider's consent comes first and the renter pays for it, and in Queensland both sides have to agree, with neither allowed to withhold consent unreasonably.

From Consumer Affairs Victoria, Consumer Protection WA and the Residential Tenancies Authority.

Related guides

If the way out is fine and the key is the problem, station 2 covers who might hold a spare. If you want a different lock on the door, station 4 covers changing a lock in a rental.