Trapped inside a fridge

[Cockney_si]

Anyone know of anyone that has been trapped inside an abandoned fridge? My mum always says that when you shut the door if you climb inside you can't get out.

[4getmenot]

I spose if the light goes out when you shut the door you cant find the handle :-) Dont the shelves get in the way? Who ever would want to climb inside a fridge??

[Tan30]

I vaguley remember hearing something about a girl being trapped inside a fridge because she could'nt open it from the inside.

[shazbang]

surely to god if you pushed the door from the inside it would open? its not as if its locked. i wanna go home and test this now.!

[ermintrude35]

..ah yes "old fridges can kill" I remember this old public info film back in the 70s ,It concerns the dangers of children getting locked in old fridges, and dates from an era when clasp-style locks were routinely put on fridge doors.... watch it here http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4743336.stm

[joko]

also really small kids may not have the strength to push, but it is only a suction seal - no locks

there is no handle inside (!)

[4getmenot]

I know walk in freezers are dodgy, I went in one in McDonalds once and the emergency button had frozen so I couldnt get out :-(

[Laurinha]

I just tested the theory and I have disporved it - if you are in a fridge with the door closed you can get out. Thank you, Thank you!

[treacle84]

Yeah, I've been stuck in one at work as well for 10 mins. It was awful as I'm also claustraphobic. I felt like that woman on the jaffa cake advert who's stuck down the well! I kept sayin 'help' when I thought someone was walking past. I eventually worked out that if you push hard enough it will open- but you do have to push flippin hard!!

[msemma]

if you shut the door and then climb inside I'm sure you'd be able to get out again, probably using the same route as you got in, the door seems a bit irrelevant. ;o)

[Toureman]

Theres a few flippant answers above but several children have died because of being trapped in fridges! not funny.

Heed your Mum's advice.

[Rubyrose]

If you are inside one and the suction seal causes it to close tight then you just have to stick your finger nails in the suction seal and pull it and it starts to let air in.. then 'tadah'.. door opens. :o) Does it to the one in our garage all the time but I have never been on the inside of it. But I just poke the suction seal and it hisses and set the door free.

Ooooh scary thought.. Imagine you're in the fridge trying to push the door open to get out and it falls over onto the door.. You would be trapped! eewwww!

[joko]

would you not just push the back up?

though I expect thats how the kids died - not strong enough to lift the whole back of the fridge...brrr

[Ethmer]

That applies to the old (almost antique) fridges that didn't have magnetic seals but had a latching system. Most fridges nowadays simply have a magnetic seal so children can get out.

It used to be such a bad problem with children getting locked in fridges and dying in the U.S. that many states passed laws against the abandonment of fridges without having the doors removed.

[{Dakota}]

I'm rather claustrophibs reading this thread :(

Laurinha - did you really just climb in your fridge??

[Bluemukka]

I remember reading a story in a paper years ago about a child that had died after climbing into a fridge that had been dumped. It was lying flat on its back and once the door had shut he was a gonna, they even showed you photos of his footprints were he had frantically tried to kick the door open :-((

[~Wingnut~]

Oh I remember that too Bluemukka, but I think there were 3 of them, it was a boy and his 2 sisters/brothers, I remember you being shown on the news the footprint on the door where he had kicked at it in a desperate attempt to open it and it has always haunted me.
I thought if you left an old fridge outdoors, ready to be dumped etc. then you had to legally take the door off of them incase of kids playing with them?

[tntmoz]

My grandfather was one of the people that helped pass a law in the US that made it illegal to throw away a fridge without removing the doors first. Junkyards were full of these older fridges with a latch handle that locked the fridge shut. Untold numbers of children were killed/injured this way. We have one of my grandads scrapbooks that is at least 3 inches thick filled with newspaper clippings of refrigerator accidents. It is not just fridges though, dishwashers, wood chests, anything that needs to have a button or latch used to open needs to be disable before discarding. I have a Lane cedar chest that belonged to my grandparents that had a recalled lock for this reason. If my grandfather only knew this was in his own house all along!