Fire Fire Mrs McGuire!

Serious topic but no reason not to show you this.

No I am not making light of fire. Far from it. But I felt the urge to splurge about the number of fires that there has been in the past few weeks round the country. Lives are claimed, families destroyed, homes up in smoke and despair abounds.
A few years ago we had a fire in our house. When I say a fire I mean we drove round the corner to our street and the area was cordoned off. There were 5 fire engines, 3 police cars and all our neighbours were evacuated from adjoining homes.

The sheer horror and terror of that day will stay with me forever. As it will the long suffering husband and teenwolf.

The fire brigade were unbelievable brave, decisive and professional. All we could do was watch as the upstairs windows blew out such was the heat of the fire in  the room.

2 days later we were able to go back in to see the damage. A huge pall of smoke still hung in the stairwell, the walls were black and the Halloween decorations which were hung looked more than sinister. The ground floor was water damaged and the room where the fire started burnt beyond recognition. All wood was gone and it was stripped down to the stone. As we walked round with our mouths open and tears pouring down our faces the fireman in charge took us to exactly where the fire had started. He knew straight away with his years of experience it had started in our bedroom, in a corner where there had been a pendant light which flickered. It never crossed my mind that something as innocuous as a flickering light could be the harbinger of doom but it turns out it was.

What happened to us was bearable for two reasons.

1.     No-one was in the house at the time so no-one was hurt.

2.     The doors between rooms were shut, thus keeping the fire contained for as long as possible.

The smoke damage was horrific, and the water damage extreme. It took us nearly 2 years to rebuild it. But the  important thing is  no-one was hurt.

We had fire alarms in situ so had this happened, God forbid, when anyone was in the house, we would have been alerted but you can never be too careful.

To this day teenwolf unplugs everything at night and if there is a flickering anything I get a spark round to check it and fast. When I go to stay with pals I make sure they have a fire alarm and if they don’t I go out and buy them one.

You couldn’t do your friends a better turn that doing the same for them.

Details here of what else you can do Fire Kills

You can request a visit from your fire brigade who will advise you what to do. It’s nothing and tey are rather attractive come on. Check this Don’t Give Fire A Home

Smoke alarms are just over a fiver – not much for peace of mind. Here’s the sort of thing from B&Q but you get them everywhere.

It’s a basic message really. Fire alarms get fire alarms. They cost a few quid. They will save your life. Really. They will.

AlisonsDiary

Writer & broadcaster.

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