Could You Save Your Family from a House Fire with Aaron Mezei?

February 21, 2023
73. Could You Save Your Family from a House Fire with Aaron Mezei?

If a fire starts in your house, do you have a plan to get your family out? Aaron Mezei has a product that will be there when you need it most, without changing the look of your house.

Here are some important moments with Aaron from the podcast: 

At 3:23 Aaron talks about the peace of mind his product gives a homeowner compared to the type that you have to lower out the window.

At 6:57 Aaron talks about the price of his fire ladder.

At 16:56 How important is it for people to do fire drills to prepare for a potential fire?

Here are some ways to follow Aaron:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronmezei/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/saferescape

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saferescape/ 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/saferescapeladders

Important information from Homeowners Be Aware:

Here are ways you can follow us on-line:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/homeownersbeaware/

Website: https://homeownersbeaware.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-siegal/

If you'd like to reach me for any reason, here's the link to my contact form:

https://homeownersbeaware.com/contact

Here's the link to the trailer for the documentary film I'm making: Built to Last: Buyer Beware.

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Thanks for listening!

Transcript

George Siegal: 0:00

Thank you for joining me today for the Tell Us How to Make It Better podcast. Did you know that every year there's an average of almost 360,000 home base fires? If a fire started in your house and you had a second floor, do you have a plan to get your family out safely? The Home Safety Council estimates that only 6% of American homes have a fire escape. That means everyone else would either have to get lucky and make it down the stairs, have the fire department arrive with a ladder or end up having to jump out of the window. This situation is very much like what I always talk about regarding home ownership and homeowners not understanding the risks in their area, and if they do not taking it seriously enough to do something about it, the risk of fire is across the board in any home, not just in disaster prone areas. So why aren't you doing anything? My guest today has a great solution to this problem. Aaron Mezei is the founder and owner of Safer Escape. It might be the closest thing to having a real fire escape without changing the way the outside of your house looks. And it could make the difference between life and death in a fire. I'm George Siegal, and this is the Tell Us How to Make It Better podcast. Every week we introduce you to people who are working on real world problems and providing actual solutions. Tell Us How to Make. It Better is partnering with The Readiness Lab, the home for podcasts webinars and training in the field of emergency and disaster services. Aaron, thank you so much for joining me today.

Aaron Mezei: 1:34

It's great to be here.

George Siegal: 1:35

Hey, I'm, uh, fascinated by the, the video of your product and, and seeing how important it is to have something like that. So tell us what it is that you have identified as a problem and tell us what you're doing to make it better?

Aaron Mezei: 1:47

So the problem is that we brought in a ladder to help everybody get out of fire very quickly because there's no time. I just find . That it's very hard to get people to see the value in it where they think fires don't happen. Fires happen only to people on the news. It's not likely to happen. I don't need it. And they just don't see the value and don't wanna spend the money and don't want it on their house.

George Siegal: 2:16

You know, it's interesting because the, the problem that you face is very similar to the theme in my last film, the the Last House Standing, and I'm very big on bad construction. Why do people live in houses that are dangerous? Why do they make horrible decisions? Well, is one of the decisions that people make the most horrible choices with, and they don't realize it. So tell us how your product works and how this can save lives?

Aaron Mezei: 2:43

So our product is a retractable ladder that's put outside your window, and if God forbid there's a fire, you gotta just pull the pin, climb out, you're outta your house in 15 to 45 seconds. That's it.

George Siegal: 2:57

Now, what's fascinating about it is the way it sits, like almost like a little beam on the side of your house and then it, it turns into a ladder. What's amazing to me is when you show it next to the one that most people have, because I used to have one, like the other one.

Aaron Mezei: 3:10

I also did.

George Siegal: 3:11

Yeah. And you never use that. But I, I'm trying to see now what it would be like in that moment of panic, throwing that out a window and trying to get to use it. When you, when you put that against your product, there's, there's really no comparison.

Aaron Mezei: 3:23

So everything in life is about preparation. You can't just say, oh, there'll be a fire. I'll figure it out. And we usually, you know, these things you're supposed to think about when it happens to somebody else, not to yourself. My neighbor had a fire, we, first thing we did was took that ladder, threw it out the window from the third floor, took one look at it and said, not gonna happen. And the fire escapes are just too ugly and this was the best option. And after a year of research, we brought it in.

George Siegal: 3:50

So what are the things that people are saying that get them not to do it. Like I have people come by and try to sell me solar panels and I know they're selling me something that is not gonna work for me. But what you're selling is totally different. To me, it's like a having a storm cellar if you live in tornado alley, you know most people don't have one. Yet their house blows away and they get killed. Fire happens all the time. The statistics, I was looking this up earlier and the, you probably have better statistics than I do, but on average there's 358,000 home based fires every year. I mean, that's a huge amount. Yet people are just assuming they're gonna be able to get out of their house.

Aaron Mezei: 4:31

So I don't have that statistics. I could just tell you, every 23 seconds a fire station leaves for a fire, gets a call and leaves every one minute and 40 seconds, somebody dies in a fire In America. It's crazy.

George Siegal: 4:47

Now, the other thing I thought was interesting too is I saw a statistic that said only 6% of people, homeowners have an escape mechanism, like a fire ladder to get out of their house. That that just seems absurd to me.

Aaron Mezei: 5:01

That's absurd. The question is, what is statistics about smoke alarms, because that's a prerequisite. I'd love to know what that is. When I come down to somebody's house or when I get on a phone call, the first question I should be asking and try to ask is, do you have smoke alarms? And a lot of people say no. And I say, don't even bother with me. Go get your smoke alarms and call me back.

George Siegal: 5:19

Yeah. And a lot of people don't maintain the batteries in 'em, and then when the battery goes dead, they just take it out and, and they don't have it. And there's a mentality with people that they just don't think anything bad is going to happen to them. And then when it does, they seem surprised, like, how'd this happen to me. I think that's amazing.

Aaron Mezei: 5:39

Yeah. People just don't want to think about it. So it, it's scary. It's, you know, but people think, I deal with people and they're like, God forbid, I don't even wanna think about it. But they think just by thinking that way, it's not gonna happen. Where I had somebody, I who should have bought a ladder and they're like, I don't even wanna think about it. I don't wanna think about it. and I'm like, I'm not even gonna bother with you because you, you're stuck with your fear and you're never gonna take the next step. And I sold the ladder to somebody installed it a few weeks ago and the husband went out, tried it. It was good. We made a little tweaks. Then he wanted to show his wife. His wife flipped out at the idea of him going on the ladder. And I'm like, you're going. He went out once already, so we made the tweak. So it's easier to get out next time. If he never went out. I never would have known he needs a platform now he needs a grab bar. And if it was, I said, if it was up to her, she never would've gotten the ladder. And if there's a fire, God forbid it's her fault. I mean it would, thank God they have a ladder. They're good.

George Siegal: 6:33

Now, when somebody gets something like this, like when we were making the last house standing, we found out that putting a storm cellar in, in your house, an emergency, uh, shelter, can start at$3,000 and, and then the price goes up. You could finance it, you could get low interest loans for it. What is the process for, for getting a fire ladder? How much do they typically cost and, and how is that, how does that process work?

Aaron Mezei: 6:57

So it's, it's pretty simple. The second floor usually costs about 2,500. The third floor's usually 3,800. That doesn't include installation and that's it. You can finance it. We offer financing. Nobody's really taking it. People say, oh, I'll use it. And then when it comes down to a push comes to shove, they just take it. Anybody who wants the ladder and wants it bad enough gets it.

George Siegal: 7:19

Hey, you wonder why? You wonder why insurance companies wouldn't subsidize things like this and, and storm sellers and concrete houses and everything. So the people that come in and pay for the damage, and I'm, I'm not a fan of the insurance industry at all. I think that's, uh, that industry is insane. I know they have a lot of difficulty when there's a disaster because they have to come in at a very tough time, but they don't do enough upfront that I think could help have them have to stop paying out those kind of, of deficits. So when somebody wants to get a fire ladder, There should be ways creatively that they could do it because of how important it seems it is.

Aaron Mezei: 7:57

Insurance companies don't care about you one bit. The first thing I did when I got my ladder was went into insurance agent and said, will this get you some discount on the insurance? You know, uh, I . Don't, you know, this should say enough. He's like, you can call them up when they have., you have a tree on, somebody has a tree on top of their house, it's gonna cost two grand to cut it down now. I'll call, I can call 'em up and say, Hey, if you cut it down, it cost you two grand. Wait three weeks, it'll cost you 50. They'll say, call me back in three weeks.

George Siegal: 8:26

Yeah, I don't, I don't understand that entire industry and, and what they do now. Like in my particular house, I looked at all the second story windows after seeing your product and below each one there's an impedement to keep it from being a straight line down for the ladder. So, and the, the windows in the back of the house, there's a lower roof that is down by the pool that you wouldn't be able to get over in the front. There's a subroof below it. and there's an awning down further. It's like, how do, how do you get a clean line? What do you do if there isn't a clean line?

Aaron Mezei: 8:57

Uh, sometimes the worst thing is when I say to somebody, I can't help you. When they want it, they're ready to go. I say, I can't help you, is the worst because I brought up the problem. But it's very limited that that's one of the issues because it can only go up to 14 inches off a wall if you have a overhang. Now, if the overhang is, is three inches, no problem. I use the regular brackets. If it's more than four 16 inches, I have to use a special ladder to go around that, but I can't go past 26 and a half inches. It just doesn't work.

George Siegal: 9:24

So, so the setup has to be right. So are there options for people that, that don't have that straight line? And so that's a requirement to use your product. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing. A lot of houses are, are, there's probably so many houses that need that. But what about the people that are in my situation?

Aaron Mezei: 9:42

So, Lucky enough. So first I just wanna back up. This ladder was designed in Denmark. Have you been to Europe? Yes. Where I've been to every house is exactly the same. It's flat, it's clean. 1, 2, 3, boom. In America, every house is different. The good. The plus is if you have a house like that, chances are you might be able to climb down with what you have without the ladder. If you have an impediment, that could be a ch uh, you a chance for you to help you now? Sure. I have a roof in front of my house. My, my room, there's a whole roof, so I can't, I have to walk five feet until I get to the ladder. Growing up, before I had this ladder, it was always, I have bushes under me, I'll roll onto the bushes. You know, that's the best I can do. But now at least I can walk two feet and not be stuck in the house anymore. So it's something.

George Siegal: 10:35

But it's not. Yeah, it's, it's interesting the, the architecture here versus what you're talking about in Europe because, um, I was walking through a neighborhood that's right by the water, which is near where I live in, in Tampa. And there are two houses that were being built, uh, that were both concrete on the first floor. One was concrete on the second floor, the other was wood on the second floor. And I called the builder and asked him, what, why are you putting wood by the water in Florida on the second floor? He goes, first of all, that's what the homeowner. wanted. And then the second thing was they had those bump outs, those designs where if the, if the floors aren't sitting on top of each other, it's very difficult to use concrete on the second floor. So they chose the design that was more dangerous because of the aesthetics than they did ultimately for safety.

Aaron Mezei: 11:17

I have a client who's by the beach now. They said it's humid. Lots of salt. The AC's die every two years, and they asked me about the ladder, and I never realized that there's so much salt that'll eat away anything. Uh, it's just crazy that somebody for l for, you know, they're gonna have to replace the wood one in a few years.

George Siegal: 11:34

How would the ladder hold up, uh, in a house by the water?

Aaron Mezei: 11:37

So I reached out to my manufacturer. He said he can't say how many years, but it should last a long time, and I can still honor the 15 year warranty.

George Siegal: 11:45

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Aaron Mezei: 12:11

It's anodized, it comes powder coded it. It should typically, it should last forever, and by he says also by the sea. It should be good. What somebody asked me was, what happens when it freezes if the la if it rains and then it freeze., what would you think?

George Siegal: 12:32

Yeah, well, first of all, if it's frozen, I think it's a lot more difficult to get out, obviously if it's slippery.

Aaron Mezei: 12:37

So that's not the problem. The problem is the question will is will the ladder open? And I said, I don't know. There's only one way to do it. And that's by trying it. That's how I figured out you couldn't bring a baby down, no problem. And since they asked me, I haven't had a cold day yet, now it's like 14 degrees. I am going to take a sample, soak it up. Leave it outside for 24 hours and, and see how it opens.

George Siegal: 13:01

Yeah, that would be, that would be really interesting. You know, when you, when you have a product like yours, can you recall some of the things people have said as to what their No is? Because if I had a house, if I had a house where I could use your product, after seeing that video, , I would already have you on in the queue to, to put it in because I, I really was impressed by just, it, it just smacked me in the face how unprepared we are in case if we ever had a fire. What, what are some of the excuses you hear?

Aaron Mezei: 13:28

It's too expensive. Fire's never gonna happen. It doesn't happen to me. Um, I don't want the look, I don't want it to ruin the look of my house. And the best excuse, my wife doesn't want it. guy, bitch. Yeah,

George Siegal: 13:43

Yeah, in looking at your product, um, I don't want people to think I'm on commission with you because, uh, I, I, I just happen to have been impressed by it, but I'm getting nothing for it. It, what I liked about it is it doesn't stand out. It could just be a, it could be a conduit along the side of your house where there are cables running. For all people know, I mean, there's nothing about the design that makes you go, oh my God. I mean, there's far more unpleasant things to look at that aren't gonna save your life.

Aaron Mezei: 14:10

Exactly, so I was just coming to my house to do the podcast. I'm doing it for my house. As I'm walking on the porch, there's a, there's a guy working there. We're doing construction. I said, Hey, what do you do? Whatever., I have this ladder. He's like, what? I said, this is, this is a ladder. He is like, what is that? I went upstairs, opened it. He would not believe it. He's like, I've been working here for a week. I didn't even notice it, and now you're telling me it's a ladder and these are the people I'm looking for. The guys who like it for, as it is, as you're saying, commission. Nobody's gonna sell it for commission. They're gonna come in and get it because they like the product and and suggest it, and hopefully he'll sell it.

George Siegal: 14:47

Now when people have a product like that or any kind of safety feature, how important is it for them to actually practice with it? Like, if you have a gun, you should be going to the gun range because the one time you have to pull that out, you better be able to shoot, you know, if you have, uh, people should have an evacuation plan. All these things that people should try, how, how many times and how much do you have to practice going down the ladder?

Aaron Mezei: 15:09

So I'm glad you brought that up cause that's very important. One of the advantages of my ladders are you can practice as opposed to, as opposed to the throw out ladders. If you are crazy enough to throw it out the window and you're crazy enough to, to think you're gonna get on it, now you have to buy a new one. So nobody's gonna do that ever. And cuz they are one time use. My product, the first thing I tell you as soon as you get it is practice. The first time I went out, it took me a minute. Now I do it in 15 seconds. And also with this guy, I said before with the tweaks in his ladder, if he wouldn't have tried it, it would've been much harder to get out. Now he can get out much faster. It took him two minutes to get out cause his window was small. Now he can do it in, in 45 seconds.

George Siegal: 15:50

That's interesting. With life-saving things with live or die decisions, the amount of people that just put it off is, is mind boggling to me. You know, we just missed Hurricane Ian here in Tampa. And I think most people have forgotten about it except the people that had the damage. Those people are gonna be living with that potentially for the rest of their lives. So it's that human psyche that you have to battle. You probably almost need a psychologist on your staff to go out with you and find out, okay, why aren't you doing it? Let's explore the reasons why you're not doing this, because you have to be crazy.

Aaron Mezei: 16:23

Uh, the reason is they, you know, I, I, I, when I started out, I bought the two expensive part. Now I've been in business two years. I have data and really it's the only reason somebody doesn't want it is because they don't see the value. Somebody has a nice house, it's either gonna look gorgeous or it's not gonna work. We're not talking about something, you know, sticking out like a big ugly fire escape where you notice it.

George Siegal: 16:48

Yeah, especially if you could put it in the back of the house or on the side of the house. It's like people wouldn't even notice that probably.

Aaron Mezei: 16:54

You have, you have to practice and people should be practicing every year. My, um, you know, my neighbor, when they had their fire, the guy was knocking on his kid's door, screaming his head off. He couldn't get there from the other side of the house. Wake up. Wake up, and I don't know if they were outta the house or not, but they could have gone out and they don't know where their kids are. You have to have a meeting point, and this is even before my neighbor's fire. This was just so obvious to my parents before that happened that we always, growing up, we knew if there's a fire, there's a stop sign across the street. That's where we meet. You. The worst is you don't want a fireman going in and dying because they thought somebody was in the house and he wasn't. That would be horrible. And I'm sure it's happened.

George Siegal: 17:40

Yeah. You know, all the people that I've interviewed that were in disaster situations talk about how you don't think clearly then because you can never really practice for those adrenaline moments as an average person. I mean, cops, firefighters, those people do drills all the time and they, and, and they still make mistakes, but at least they're drilling at what they're doing and, and practicing it. Most homeowners don't practice anything that will help them in a disaster. So when that panic moment hits, you don't think clearly.

Aaron Mezei: 18:10

Yeah. I had that panic yesterday where, you know, when you have a business like this, everything is about, ends up being like that. Whereas in the bathroom, I stuck my hand into the box of tissues and guess what? There wasn't any left. I'm like, oh man. And I. Just a panic. It's not a big deal, but like, just a panic for five seconds. Like, uh oh. And like, imagine if there's a fire, like, and you're not, and somebody's not prepared. People could go crazy and, and not do the right thing and not save, you know, the family.

George Siegal: 18:41

Yeah. I'm trying to think of a feeling people would get. I mean, it's like when you reach in your pocket where you thought your wallet was and it's not there, and that fluttering that you get. Or if you look around at the airport and you don't see your child for a second. I mean, there's those things that bring out that fear in you, but most people don't. I mean, a lot of people statistically, are experiencing fire, but still most people have not. And so they just don't think it would be, they think they would be able to handle it, and they really have no idea how bad it would be.

Aaron Mezei: 19:07

Correct. And you don't have to, you're, you're a different generation than me, but my generation, you wanna talk about panic. All I have to say is get locked outta your Instagram account for five minutes. Imagine that panic.. George Siegal: Yeah, no, I, I, I feel things because they take way too much of our time and, uh, have taken way too much importance in most people's lives. LinkedIn is the only thing I waste my time on. The rest I post, I check in and that's it. I don't even have it on my phone. In order to get to Instagram, Facebook, I have to go from somebody else's cuz either I'd be on it all day and not accomplish anything. Or those are the options. So I post, I needed what I do, what I need to do and check in when I need to check in.

George Siegal: 19:49

Yeah. So now do you sell your product just in the region that you live in? Is it a national thing? How does, how does this work in the big picture?

Aaron Mezei: 19:58

So it's just funny looking back cause we thought we'd only sell it local where we have our installers and we sell it everywhere. Right now we're just about to hit half of the states, we keep track and we can send, send it anywhere. And I don't tell the ins the guy who buys it, that I'll find an installer, but I have a guy in Baltimore, in in Maryland who three months after he bought it, he still hasn't found, somebody called him up. I said, this is ridiculous. I called a number, got a handyman, made the connection, and I just followed up yesterday to find out what happened. But anybody can buy it. I can ship it anywhere. Any handyman can install it. It's, it's really awesome.

George Siegal: 20:37

Yeah. Well, I'm gonna walk around my house again and see if there's a place it would go. Unfortunately. I think that, uh, you know, we're gonna make sure those smoke alarms are working. Uh, what's the.

Aaron Mezei: 20:45

That's more important.

George Siegal: 20:47

Absolutely. What's the best way for people to reach out and get in touch with you and, and to see the product up close?

Aaron Mezei: 20:52

So you have our Instagram, Facebook,

George Siegal: 20:56

put everything in the show notes.

Aaron Mezei: 20:58

Um, the best way to reach out is to get to our website. You can connect with me on its, uh, any, any platform you can connect with me. The website, safer escape.com and or just call me up seven two five two three seven two two seven three seven two five two. Escape. Even if you don't wanna buy the ladder. If somebody wants to call me for advice on a smoke alarm, that's a success. Anything.

George Siegal: 21:22

Sure. Now, as an entrepreneurial guy, I just wanna leave people with this. You've stepped out and done something because you wanted to solve a problem, make something better. What advice do you have to other people who might have an idea or something they want to do, but they're just not doing anything with it right now. They're just kind of sitting around.

Aaron Mezei: 21:39

Listen to nobody. Do whatever you want. I started a charity where I have 75 locations for, we lend our car seats and everybody said, no, it's not gonna happen. Nobody's gonna open up their home individually, run locations. It's the largest around that I know of. So everybody's gonna say, you can't do it. You can't do it. Take that you can't do it and run with it. Absolutely get yourself a coach. That's very important.

George Siegal: 22:07

Get somebody that holds you. It's good to have somebody that holds you accountable.

Aaron Mezei: 22:10

So I'm, you know, my father's my partner, so he's there and he holds me accountable to what needs to be done. Originally, he used to have to turn my hand and say, you gotta work hard, you gotta work harder. But now it's just, I don't have enough time in the day to knock out what has to be done.

George Siegal: 22:26

I hear you. Well, listen, uh, Aaron continued success with with your product, and I encourage everybody to at least check it out because you don't wanna be in a situation where you look back and go, I wish I'd been able to get my family out. I wish I had done something differently. When it comes to people's safety and the choices they make this, this seems like a no-brainer.

Aaron Mezei: 22:46

A hundred percent. I can't say more. Where people, oh, I wish I did this. You can't. It's too late. Now's the time. You can't say, I only take the ladder when I need it. You know? It's not about putting up the ladder in case of a fire. It's about being prepared. You have everything prepared that in case you need it, you can get out.

George Siegal: 23:06

Absolutely. Aaron, thanks so much for coming on today.

Aaron Mezei: 23:09

Thanks for having me.

George Siegal: 23:11

Thank you for joining me today on the Tell Us How to Make It Better podcast. All of Aaron's contact info is in the show notes as well as all my social media. And if you enjoyed what you were listening to today, please become a subscriber. Share the link with your friends and even leave a review. And if you have any questions about this episode or any of the past episodes, or you know of a great guest for a future episode, there's a link to my contact form that comes directly to me. Thanks again for listening. See you next time.