Our Own House Fire
Posted on | January 20, 2010 |
Haven’t been posting because we recently had our own house fire. It was small and contained, but nonetheless, a fire. We were very lucky that we were home and awake.
It was around 8:30 at night, and smoke began filling the house.
Erik, my husband, and I were asking each other - are you cooking? did you leave something on somewhere? - and we’re running around trying to find the source of the fire. The smoke is getting thicker, the smell is awful, he’s feeling the walls for heat, I run into the pantry to grab this little fire extinguisher, the smoke is getting worse, and I realize ‘We’re not professionally trained to handle a fire…’ and call 911.
We were told by the 911 operator to evacuate. I leashed our dog, Lovey, and grabbed my camera and cell phone. Just two weeks earlier, I had taken pictures of EVERYTHING in the house to begin a home inventory update. Of course, I hadn’t downloaded a single shot. Everything was put in my purse, I took a flashlight and ran out telling Erik I was going to steer the first responders to our house.
It’s impossible to find our house. We live down a dirt road, and there is no address visible anywhere. As Lovey and I ran down our steep driveway, down the road, I thought of WhatHappensNow and the item I had posted for at least two weeks about making sure your address is clear from the road so first responders can find you.
And I was running to the end of the drive, frantically waving a flashlight so fire and police would know where to go.
Lesson #1: Make sure your address is visible!
More lessons to come ….
- Susan
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2 Responses to “Our Own House Fire”
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January 21st, 2010 @ 8:49 am
Glad you two weren’t injured! Looking forward to the rest of the story…
January 25th, 2010 @ 9:03 am
[...] Brief recap - We saw smoke filling the house, called 911, and learned lesson #1. [...]