Hidden Playroom

Captain Tim Meister from Charleston (IL) sent in these photos of a hidden playroom they came across on an EMS run. As you can see from the photo, the entrance of the playroom is approximately 3-4 feet off the ground behind a hinged piece of paneling. The overall dimensions of the room were 8’X12′ so even though the room has a low ceiling, it is still nearly 100 square feet in size. The room did not have permanent power but did have a lamp with an extension cord that is plugged in while the kids are playing. These hidden playrooms are much more common then you would suspect, and as you can imagine, will cause us significant issues during a search. Even slight smoke conditions would make this room impossible to find, the small handle on the door, paired with the picture hanging from it would not even make us suspect the presence of the room.

14 thoughts on “Hidden Playroom

  1. DMAN72 says:

    FIRST! Is there any incidication of knee walls from the outside? Just wondering. A lot of times you can guess. I agree you would probably never fin this on purpose, but from a fire behavior/size-up standpoint, it would be important to know.

  2. DMAN72 says:

    …and after 9 posts making fun of the dude for spelling “glad” wrong, I grossly mispell “indication.” That’s karma right there.

  3. Nate999 says:

    DMAN,

    You’re right, this info. could play a big part in forming your incidication action plan.

  4. tmckenney says:

    I saw that room in Paranormal Activity #3

    super creepy

  5. njhose_99 says:

    LoL roof crew will find them when they poke the hole!! Very happy holidays to all be safe

  6. Jon says:

    This is why we have building codes, so when we find the poor child on the secondary we can have some peace knowing it was their parents fault for building living space in an attic!

  7. LAD288 says:

    8th!! I sure hope he shared this with his department before posting it here….

  8. FitSsikS says:

    You know what’s weird?
    There are no hand prints or scuff marks on the wall (below the entry point) where the kids climb in and out.
    I think they are imaginary tots that a childless couple ‘adopted’ or like others hinted, some sort of entity.

  9. Steven Mooch says:

    I acctually Came across one of these on a mutuall aid call,
    Call dwelling fire :smoke in the residence 2 story single family with attached garage(garage on delta alpha side) the fire was on the the delta side of the house,smoldering insulation from what I recall
    Assignment; check for extension.
    How I found it, I was walking around 2nd floor of the house and as I enter a room I noticed a wall had a odd handle in it which was very odd to me i pulled to the left and saw something very similar to what the picture shows i showed my crew and they said thats intresting it was eye opening for sure

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