donnamh's Journal

Hi everyone,

 I woke up at 6 am yesterday morning and jumped out of bed. The scanner went off with a fire at a familiar address. It's weird, I have the scanner on 24/7. I hardly notice it is even on, except for certain tones that go off.  ( my family is full of fire fighters)

Our dept. was responding mutual aid to a house fire.  My son's  friend, a fire fighter had slept over.  He looked at me and said "what's wrong", he had woken up to go to the station.   I said that is was at our friends address. He went holy crap. 

 Joel and he took off the the station. Our friends live in a 2nd story old home. The basement was redone and is the master bedroom now.   The fire was on the 2rd floor, where the kids sleep. Everyone got out fine. 

The couple are both fire fighters. He was at work,  2 of the kids, from a previous marriage, were not home and at their Dad's (thank God)  She was asleep in the "basement bedroom'  with the 8 month old baby. She heard the smoke detector go off.  Carefully went upstairs, with the baby to the 1st floor. Saw smoke,  grabbed her phone and called it in as she left the house. She brought the baby to the neighbors. She then went back to the house  to see where the fire was.

  "She is a trained fire fighter, please remember that!!! "

 It was in her sons room, on the 2nd floor. The door was open, but the windows were closed. She shut the door to the room and cut the fires oxygen source off and left the house. Again, she is a trained fire fighter.  The Fire Dept came and luckily got control of it right away.

 It was contained to the son's room only, but they have smoke and water damage.  They are all ok. That's all that matters.

The Fire Firghters also got all the pets out of the house safely.  Notice I said "The Fire Fighters".  Let them get the animals out,   NOT YOU!!!

 They have insurance and will have to stay at a friends for a while. The insurance co. will send in a team of professional cleaners to clean the house. 

 We stopped over later in the day and it is a mess. The whole house smells horrible with the smoke and burnt plastic etc.  The fire dept. had left huge ventilation fans through out the house. It still smelled horrible. The son's room is a complete loss.  They believe it started from a heat lamp on an extension cord for the turtle tank. The extension cord got hot, the son had a plastic bin near cord and  that's the source, they believe, of the fire. It could have been so much worse. So much worse.

Please everybody, read this and forward it to all your friends.  Check your batteries in your smoke detectors. I do this in the Spring and Fall when I change the clocks for daylight savings time. It's easy to remember that way.  If the detectors are old, replace them. Many fire depts. give them away free of charge.

Make sure you have Carbon Monixide dectectors as well on EVERY floor of your home. (I have combo detectors on every floor as well as reg. smoke detectors.  I have a total of 12 in my home)  Make sure you have them on every floor of your home, including the basement. Especially in and near the bedrooms so you hear the alarm sound while sleeping.  The more detectors you have, the earlier the warning.  

Fires can and do happen, EVEN at fire fighters homes.

So many people die bc of not having working smoke detectors. If a fire starts and there is no warning from a detector,  the smoke and chemicals from the furniture and plastics  etc.  that burn, are toxic to breathe.

People die bc of the lethal air in the home, and not even from the fire itself. If the smoke detectors are on all floors, you have that much more advance notice and can actually save your lives and your home.

Also "check your extension cords".  Make sure they are up to date. Throw away any old cords, or any that have even a tiny split or fray. The cords are so inexpensive to buy. The newer cords are much safer. Make sure they are cool to touch and are not over-loaded with too many things.  This is a common practice in older homes bc they have soo few outlets.  Keep the area around the cords and outlets free from "stuff" papers, toys, curtains etc.   Never use a twist tie or anything to shorten a cord, it can cause the cord to over heat.   Buy new ones that are at the correct length for your needs.

Also ONLY use "heavy duty"  extension cords that are made for these  larger appliances, ovens,  refrigerators and air conditioners on these appliances.  Or better yet, plug these appliances  directly in  an outlet.

These simple and inexpensive things CAN and WILL save your lives and protect your homes, families and your pets.   

Hope everyone had a good weekend.   Be good and be safe.  Love and Hugs,  Donna