They are the words you never want to hear:
“Your house is on fire! Get out!”
A complete stranger was pounding on my door, yelling at me to get out. In days past, I’d always played the “What would I grab if my house was on fire? game and now I have the answer:
My dog.
Not even his leash. Roger was home so while I had my cell phone in my pocket, I took the dog and the clothes I was wearing on my back. Roger stood out in front of our house, shoeless we surveyed the scene.
We live in townhouses and the house two doors down from us was on fire. It was easy to see that it was a goner. The house next to ours, it was clear, was going to be in rough shape as well. The fire hadn’t traveled to our house yet.
And that’s when I had a terrifying thought: Where was Jeremy?
It was the first day of school, and with Jer, I didn’t know his new schedule. There was no way he could be in the house, right?
Roger ran back into the house, straight to Jeremy’s room, flew open the door to find a sleeping Jeremy, fresh off his first day of college, back in bed, sound asleep.
Yep. We are the parents that grabbed the dog, but forgot the kid.
Fortunately, everyone on our block was safe, but it gave me not only a new respect for the fire fighters who saved our house, but also the need for our whole family to get up on their fire safety.
You never think that a fire is going to happen to you – until it does. I now have the peace of knowing that I’ve done everything I know how to do to keep my family safe. And if you have small kids, it’s especially important to help them grow in their fire safety knowledge.
Two great resources.
- Download the for free (for kids ages 2-6 – and let me just say I played it and TOTALLY CRUSHED IT…) I would absolutely recommend having it on your phone and while you and your kids are waiting in line at the grocery store or are in the waiting room of the doctor’s office, whip it out so your kids can play and learn. I had a bunch of my friends with little-uns try it out – the four year olds were WILD about it – the older kids (six and seven) all shared concerns that it might be too babyish, but kept coming back for more and playing.
For older kids (7-10) download this free e-book Rescue Dogs, Firefighting Heroes and Science Facts Some of my favorite authors
- Another great Sparky resource is this Fire Safety Checklist to go over with your kiddos. There were some great reminders to me as well.
- Have your dryer serviced regularly and clean out the lint – not just in the lint trap but in the hosing behind the dryer.
Is there something you’ve done to teach your kiddos safety in the home?
I can’t believe your blog was about fire and dogs. Five years ago my house burned to the ground. I had spent the day doing my bi-weekly deep cleaning (which when I thought about it later really chapped my hide at all that work I had done!) and was getting into the shower when I had an overwhelming need to call my mom. I turned off the water and went to the back porch to give her a call. We had been talking less than five minutes when my two dogs who were inside started going nut and literally exploded out of the doggie door. My Catahoula was being aggressive, trying to push me out of my chair and biting my hand as if to get me up. My dogs have never behaved this way so I told mom I’d call her back, went in thru the sliding glass door and plunged into a wall of dense white smoke. Fire never crossed my mind because the fire alarms were silent, I didn’t smell smoke and I had just literally walked outside. I thought I would go to my closet and grab my picture albums then get out just in case. As soon as I got into the closet (it was really more like a small room) the lights went out and I became very disoriented. I was lost inside the closet! I began feeling along the walls, trying to find the door when my Catahoula, Bubba, gently bit onto my hand and guided me out. I immediately grabbed a dog under each arm and ran for the door. The heat was so intense that it burned off all of hair from the top of my head. As I ran out the front door, all the windows in the back part of the house exploded and flames were rolling out of the windows. At the time I lived in a small country town 15 miles from the fire station that was manned by all volunteers. When the first truck arrived 40 minutes later, they discovered the pump was broken and was useless. After waiting 20 minutes I asked one of the volunteers where the other trucks were. He told me that there had been no water in the trucks so they were filling them and should be there in 30 minutes.Obviously the house was a total loss. I got out with the robe I was wearing and my dogs. This is just a reminder that when you don’t have time to gather personal items, they mean it. If I had been in the shower as I planned, and if my dog hadn’t led me out I would be dead. Everyone needs to plan escape routes, practice them and never deter.
We attended a fire safety program when there was one at the San Jose Public Libraries. My daughter was only 1, but the firefighters wanted toddlers and young children to be familiar with them and what they looked like with their complete outfit, including “scary” gas mask.
Thank you for the reminder to be prepared!