Be Aware of Hazards & Choose Fire Resistant Curtains
Think about Home Curtain Fire Hazards and How to Reduce them in your House
This is an important factor in fabric selection. Selecting a flame retardant fabric for all escape routes in the house i.e. hallways, entrances, doorways is useful in the event of an emergency. Fire resistant curtains can help to make your home significantly safer, and give you added peace of mind.
Bedrooms or sleeping areas also benefit from this as often fires occur while we are sleeping and it is the smoke that kills us not the flames.
Some fabrics are coated with a class of chemicals that are used as a flame retardant on fabrics. These are called polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs.
It isn’t a “green” product as it doesn’t bind to the fabric and is released as dust and enhaled. Studies are inconclusive to the damage it does to us, but it does do a good job of reducing the spread of fire in our homes, and commercial buildings like hotels, offices and educational institutions.
There are people’s lives to think about when designing large public spaces, do your homework and provide them with as much time as possible to get out of the building by using flame retardant fabrics in the drapery, curtains and upholstery fabrics.
Wool is naturally flame retardant, and becoming a popular option for fabric selection, especially in bedrooms, and furniture upholstery. Other natural fibers burn quickly and most man made fibers like nylon, acrylic or polyester melt and let off nasty fumes.
When selecting fabrics, check the properties, these are generally on the sample or swatch, if not ask the vendor for the information to help you make your decision.
Here is a reference that offers very good advice on this subject, I recommend you take a read and learn about Flammable fabrics.
Interested in taking your love of fabrics and curtains further? Only watch if you are ready for change!
