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klbsmom
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| Posted: Aug 01 2006 at 10:16am | IP Logged
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I've been letting everyone know what happend this weekend to remind them to check their smoke alarms. Because after the fact we checked ours and found out the upstairs one wasn't working!
Last Sunday I was having a rough time sleeping, I kept getting a feeling that something was wrong with our kids or that someone was in our house. The final time I woke up about 4:30 in the morning and something told me to look outside. I saw flames reflected in the windows on the house across the street from us. Thinking it was our house I started to get everyone up; when we looked out our bedroom window we realized it was our eighbor's house but the flames were hitting our house reaching all
the way up to our bedroom window! So I took the kids outside and across the street right away, my husband followed but was a litte behind us because he stopped to grab his cell phone and our wallets. My dd unfortunately looked back at our house and thought our house was on fire while her dad was still in it; she shook for an hour. It was rough on the kids because it did look like our house was on fire from across the street and we didn't no if the neighbors were at
home or not. When the fire department showed up they did a good job containing the fire and making sure our house was completely doused in water. They started to enter our house to make sure everyone was out and my husband ran across the street to tell them where we were. We found out later that our neighbor wasn't home, but everything in his house was completely burned except for the brick on the outside. Afterwards you could see straight through his house from window to window and it looked like a vacant house! So yes, they've pretty much ruled the fire arson and said
his back door was kicked in that leads to his bedroom (where the fire started). So, that little tid bit has got my nerves shot!
I've been letting everyone know what happened to remind everyone to check and make sure they having working smoke alarms. We fixed our upstair's one and have added a few more:) When talking to the fire department they said make sure there is one on every level of the house and check them once a month; they said it's not a bad idea to put one outside each bedroom also.
I just wanted to pass this on because I know how we were we made sure we had the smoke alarms but we did not always remember to check them :)
Tina
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MaryM
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| Posted: Aug 01 2006 at 10:20am | IP Logged
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What an important reminder, Tina. Off to check them! Thank God you and your family (and neighbor) were all safe. How asbsolutely frightening though.
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Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
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Cay Gibson
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| Posted: Aug 01 2006 at 10:21am | IP Logged
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What a great reminder, Tina.
Thank you!
So sorry for the drama to your family. I'll pray that the arson was only an isolated case and not threatening to the rest of the neighborhood.
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Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: Aug 01 2006 at 10:24am | IP Logged
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Oh, my goodness! How very frightening that must have been, Thank God no one was hurt.
We purchased two new smoke detectors a couple of weeks ago and there they sit, still in the package!  I need to get those up today!
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Angie Mc
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| Posted: Aug 01 2006 at 10:30am | IP Logged
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I am so sorry, Tina. How very frigtening. I'm praying for your peace and post-accident recovery.
I just added "check the smoke alarms" to my monthly to do list. Thank you for the reminder.
Love,
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Angie Mc
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stacykay
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| Posted: Aug 01 2006 at 3:20pm | IP Logged
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Tina,
how scary! Thanks for the reminder!
I should know better, as our next door neighbor's house burned 2 weeks before Christmas 2002. They were all ok, but it took a year to rebuild.
A side note:  metal gasoline cans
Our neighbor had the newer plastic can in his garage. When it caught fire, the plastic simply melted. The fire chief told him that if it had been metal, it would have exploded like a bomb, they would not have survived, and our house and the other side neighbor's house would have gone up too.
One last thing- and no, we haven't done this  , but one of the fireman we spoke to said he has smoke alarms in every room of his house. I guess it's an occupational thing, like I have never met an overweight cardiologist!
I am going to go check right now.
Oh, and we have ladders for all the bedrooms (we are all on the second floor.)
I will pray for all of you, especially given the circumstances, and I pray your dc are recovering from the shock!
God Bless,
Stacy in MI
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LisaD
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| Posted: Aug 01 2006 at 5:13pm | IP Logged
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Tina, that is an excellent reminder. I know I certainly don't check our smoke detectors monthly!
For those of you, like Stacy and me, that have bedrooms on the second floor, window ladders are very important to have. It is also important to practice using them! And if you have a baby, make sure you have a sling or baby carrier in your bedroom, to take the baby down the ladder. That hint is brought to you by my dad, a retired firefighter, who has seen what happens when people have the right safety equipment but don't know how to use it or are too afraid to use it!
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ALmom
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I second checking the ladders. We bought some to go out our windows and when we tried them, found out that they were designed for wood frame houses and did not fit over our bricks. They would not have been of any use to us in a real fire - and luckily we found out soon enough to know which rooms they worked from and which they didn't.
Another hint - take your young children on a field trip to the fire department. They love seeing the trucks and stuff, but also make sure the fireman shows them his breathing masks and what they sound like. The fireman told us that usually kids get scared and hide from them because that breathing apparatus is noisy and the mask is scarey. They had a safety house at a company picnic that dc and I did together. I learned a few things.
Sure glad everyone is Ok in your house. Have you heard the difference between battery and electrical alarms? I heard somewhere that you should have both but our house only has battery operated ones where we check the battery regularly and they start beeping when the batteries get low.
Janet
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Erin
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Another idea is to do regular fire drills with the children.
A month ago a dear hs friends' dd 10 set fire to her bedroom -the daughter has downs syndrome and was re-enacting the Narnia movie complete with Lucy's candle in the cupboard. Fortunately they managed to contain the fire to only the cupboard, all the clothes were burnt with smoke damage to the rest of the room.
When the alarms went off- only installed the week before, the children became disorientated as when they had drilled they had practiced exiting via their bedroom doors, obviously mum had only thought of fires in the night. It was a good reminder to think of different scenarios to consider, a day time fire as well.
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marihalojen
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I second the drills, especially for little ones. Our smoke detector went off when dd was 3 and though we had talked I never thought to set it off while enacting the exiting. So when she heard it, she dropped and rolled under a tiny side table with a long tablecloth - completely hidden. I'd never have found her if I hadn't seen her hide.
That style of detector was also hardwired into the electrical so if the electricity is down the detectors wouldn't work, and they were set off everytime the power went off and surged back on. Awful. Go with batteries.
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lovemusic
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| Posted: Aug 05 2006 at 10:22am | IP Logged
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While we are checking the smoke detectors we should also remember to check the carbon minoxide detectors and any fire extinguishers.
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marihalojen
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Something I never knew until we moved onto the boat is that fire extinquishers need shaking every so often. It's on our monthly checklist now.
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~Jennifer
Mother to Mariannna, age 13
The Mari Hal-O-Jen
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klbsmom
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| Posted: Aug 06 2006 at 1:44pm | IP Logged
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lovemusic wrote:
While we are checking the smoke detectors we should also remember to check the carbon minoxide detectors and any fire extinguishers.
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Despite what happened last weekend, I didn't even think about the CO detectors until a few days ago. Since we got our "wake up call", I've been come a little obsessed with making sure are house is safe. We have actually installed smoke alarms in about every room of the house and I started reserching CO detectors. I thought I would share some information I came across that I never knew myself:) The best place to install a CO detector is actuallly on the ceiling and you should have one on everyone floor of the house. If you only have one, it is recommended you put it close enough to where you sleep at night, so it will wake you while your a sleep. Also if you buy a combo alarm with both a smoke and CO detector make sure you read the package insert carefully. I was told that a lot of CO detectors have a limited shelf life and then the sensor has to be replaced. On some alarms the test button will still beep even if the CO portion is not working properly. I was told to check the fine print of the instructions to find out its shelf life and what it does if a one or the other stops working. Personally, I don't think I've completely read the instructions on any alarms until I heard that. I figured a smoke alarm how hard could it be to work:) I've been learning something new each day!
I'm glad everyone has been checking there own house, I know how our lives can get so busy sometimes we forget about the little but very important things - Tina
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Please check your smoke alarms!
