An Ordinary Mom's Musings

I opened Facebook Messenger to find a message from my friend. Her house was on fire and she was requesting help. We dropped everything and ran.

As we watched their house on fire,

and the firefighters fight the fire, the memory of my recent class on mental health and disasters returned front and center. I had felt I needed to prepare my family for a house fire. House fires are the most common disaster that the Red Cross deals with. I had searched Amazon for a ladder to get out of the house from the second floor and put it into my cart. That had been the extent of my preparation. As soon as we got home, I was ordering that ladder.

Fires are nothing to mess around with. The downstairs of my friend’s home except for the garage was largely undamaged by fire, though it was heavily damaged by smoke, most fire damage was found upstairs. In our house, my children’s bedrooms are upstairs. My worst nightmare would be for them to be stuck upstairs not having a way to get out.

Two days later, early in the morning an ember caught fire in the house and again, the house started burning. Everything that they thought they would be able to recover was now a total loss. Everyone was safe, but it was a tragedy, nonetheless.

We all need to sit our children down and discuss fire. This isn’t bonfire safety which we have addressed regularly with our kids. In school I learned all about fire safety, but it appears after talking with my children, this is not an area that has been addressed in school for them.

As parents, what should we do about fire safety?

Here’s a checklist of things we need to prepare our children with.

• Have you taught them to stop, drop, and roll? My children had never heard of this and it took thorough explaining to help my daughter understand that this is what she needed to do, running while on fire was going to make the fire worse.
• Do your kids know to stay low to the ground and cover their mouths with a towel if available while they are getting out of the house?
• Have you taught them that water will not put out a grease fire? Smother it or put flour on it.
• Do they know where the fire extinguisher is and how to use it? My children had no idea we had one or how to use it.
• Do you have a central place your family knows to gather in case you have to exit the house unexpectedly and from different areas? My children thought we should meet at the front door. So, we discussed how that would not be a safe place to meet in the case of a fire and found a better location.
• Do your children know that they are not to stay inside looking for the beloved cat, dog or toy? If the pet is there at hand, bring them with you. But you need to get out immediately. There were tears in my kid’s eyes as we addressed this one. How could they leave their precious dogs behind? My friends had to leave their cats behind. Luckily they survived.
• Do your children know what to do if you are not home? Phone numbers and which neighbors to trust?
• Do you have a ladder to get out of the second story of your home and do your children know how to use it?
• And then we need to physically practice these things.

This physically practicing things was addressed in my disaster class and it really struck home for me after talking to my friend about her fire. We need to physically practice what to do in an emergency and practice it often. In an emergency, routine takes over because your brain has a hard time thinking and processing things. Things that you would normally do, you do without thinking. My friend’s house was on fire. But she went around turning off the TV and turning off the lights before exiting the house. “Because clearly that’s what’s important at a time like that!” (Please note the sarcasm, these were her words.) But these are routines that she would normally do when leaving the house.

In an emergency our brain shuts down.

We should practice so that they are automatic.

This can be a traumatic subject for our kids. Discussion of this topic should be made with clarity and honesty but with love and reassurance. Reassure them that there are always “helpers” as Mr. Rodgers says. Should they ever find themselves in this situation there will be helpers to help them every step of the way.

At Christmas time, house fires become happen more often. Let’s have these conversations with our kids so that should we, or they ever need these skills, they are there and ready to use.

Previously published on Her View From Home.