Your Home is on Fire! Now What!?
Now, hopefully your home doesn’t end up this fully engulfed in flames, but it does happen more than people think.
Typically, when fires start, your smoke detector (if you have one and the batteries are good) will start screaming at you to GET OUT OF THE HOUSE! Sadly, this isn’t always the case. There are rare occasions when a fire starts up near the ceiling that it could actually fry your smoke detector before it begins to scream. Whenever this happens, it usually means that your fire is in the attic, or the trusses- which are what holds your ceiling and attic together.
Whenever this awful occasion happens, it is obviously hard to know if you’re sleeping if there are flames above your head. This is why you need more than one fire detector and some mounted to your walls. Now people always ask me,”Mr. Fireman, if heat and smoke rises, why would I have one on the wall!?” This is for cases just as discussed above.
Whenever people’s homes begin to become engulfed in flames, it is easy to forget your plan and keep a level head. The most important thing to remember is to KEEP YOUR COOL. Whenever people tend to lose focus, they forget their plan and things start to go sour.
Most house fires tend to happen while you and your family are sleeping, unfortunately. It is important to then wake up all of your family members and pets if possible. After waking everyone, it is important to check if the fire is at your door or in the way of getting out of your house to your meeting point. If your door is closed, make sure to feel the door, and if it feels hot, DO NOT OPEN IT. If you feel no heat, you are in the clear so far.
After your door is open (if it is safe), make sure your pathway to the outside is clear, and if you can get around the smoke, go for it, but remember to stay low and crawl out of the house. Heat and smoke rises, so whenever you crawl out, the smoke will not irritate you. Also, try your best to cover your mouth to keep the smoke away. Whenever you get outside to your safe place, make sure you account for everyone in your family, and DO NOT go back inside the house for any reason. That is the firefighter’s job.
Now, if you cannot get out your door, make sure you grab some blankets or clothes to stuff underneath the door to slow down the smoke from coming into your room. After you do this, get to your window, and if you are on the first floor, you have it easy. Simply climb out the window and get to your safe place. If you happen to be on the second floor, this is where your fire ladder gets used. Hook the ladder on the window sill and throw the rungs down. Climb down the ladder and get to the safe place. If you are on the second floor and do not have a ladder, make sure to get to your window, open it and scream as loud as you can so the fire fighters know you’re there. DO NOT JUMP OUT OF THE WINDOW. This is not the movies, and normally, we don’t have huge trampolines for you to land in.
Another important thing for you to remember is to not hide whenever your house is on fire. Make sure you talk to your children to not be afraid of fire fighters whenever they are in full gear and mask. Yes, we do sort of look scary, but we are there to help you.
