True Story: A House Fire Can Happen To You, Our Friends Are Living That Right Now. #FireSafety
Twice a year you may replace your fire alarm batteries and think to yourself “A house fire will never happen to me!”
My girlfriend said the same thing and last month it did happen. Her beautiful country home went up in flames. Thank goodness her three sweet little girls made it out after her husband noticing smoke coming from the garage after dinner one night.
MyKawartha.com tells the whole tragic story here.
Fire Safety
What caught my attention about Shannons story besides being so close to home, was that her fire alarms didn’t alarm them soon enough. You see the fire rose through the walls in her garage and across the attic. All this happened in minutes after her husband noticed the smoke in the garage and once the door was open to the outside and oxgyen was let in it took off. Thank goodness he went in the garage.
I don’t know about you, but we don’t have fire alarms in our attic or garage because they are not suggested. If they were suggested Shannon would have heard the sound we so often ignore when we cook.
- Q9 in the Ontario Ministry of Community Safety & Correctional Services answers the question about why an attic is not required to have a fire alarm.
- The National Fire Protection Association NFPA.org suggests you don’t place smoke alarms in the attic because the temperature can drop below 4ºC or get above 37ºC and the smoke alarm may not function properly. A finished attic, like a game room, is considered a story of your home and therefore requires a smoke alarm.
Suggested or not should we place smoke alarms in our garage and attics to be overcautious?
Community Comes Together
Friday, our community held a benefit dance to help Shannon’s family raise money for current and upcoming struggles they are enduring. It was also a night where they could put aside all the troubles the last month has brought on and just breathe.
There were tables full of donations from friends and local businesses. I reached out to a couple of brands in my community and was very grateful for the response to help complete strangers get back on their feet.
TELUS, MLSE and Medieval Times Toronto, I cannot thank you enough for being so generous and helping me help out a family in need. Another huge thank you to the team at Barbie, who send each girl a Career Babie so they can Dream BIG.
“The heart that gives gathers.” – Tao Te Ching
- I’ve learned from this tragedy that you should never say “never“.
- You can never be too safe when it comes to the safety of your family.
- Take time to review your fire plan with your kids.
- Review placement of smoke alarms in your home.
- I’ve also learned that the world is filled with people who have huge hearts that are willing and opened to helping others.
I know the upcoming road will be bumpy for our friends, but I pray it will be weaved with happiness, giggles and lots of bonding with their sweet girls. And know, we are always here when you need us.
When was the last time you reviewed your fire plan or placement of smoke alarms in your home?
Thanks for reading In R Dream!
Please note: Use your own knowledge and ask questions at your local fire hall on fire safety.
We’ve never reviewed them — what a timely reminder.
Our home burnt down 7 months ago in kawartha lakes. Our smoke alarms never went off. The fire traveled through the the attic and the house was gone in minutes while we were home. Life’s tragedies definitely change your perspective on life.
Mine goes off periodically when cooking as well, but not as often as at our old townhouse. I guess not often enough as when it recently went off, my daughter said “what is that sound” after I went out to get her attention it was going off. I was surprised as we have done training with her to recognize that sound as she has hearing loss and even with her hearing aids does not always recognize what sounds are and needs repeated exposure and explanation. Needless to say it was time for a refresher!
It is so important to change those batteries. Personally, my parent’s home burnt down when I was 15, hmm40 years ago. It was devastating to loose absolutely everything and then have to go to school in someone else’s clothes that they had donated to you. My son’s home burned down 5 years ago, gone were the grandkids keepsakes as well as every thing else. Luckily in both fires no one was hurt. The first being a gas leak and the second was an electrical fire in the wall. So check your smoke detector batteries, they save lives
So thankful to hear no one was hurt or worst. Darlene thank you for sharing your story. Both stories show the real importance of checking your smoke detector batteries! You’re right they save lives.
When we change the time twice a year we change the batteries!
What really bothers me is when the smoke detector goes off when my grandchildren are here, and they NEVER even stop what they are doing to see what’s going on. True, Nana’s smoke detector does go off fairly often if I’m cooking, but still, they should at least get up and check to see if there is a problem.
Thanks for the reminder, I forgot to change the batteries in my fire alarm the last time we change time. There was a fire that burn four town house on my daughter street a couple weeks ago. It started with a cigarette outside. It took the firemen a long time to extinguish it. The major problem was that the BBQ thank would explode.
Glad I could remind you.
How scary for her. Thank goodness her home wasn’t involved!
Karen mine goes off when I cook too, LOL.
I gave my children Heck the other day because they didn’t even blink at it during dinner prep. I completely understand. We all need to be assertive even if it’s just when we are cooking.