Sunday, August 14, 2005

Fire starters...

Yesterday I saw how quickly a tragedy could happen ... This is what unfolded in the space of a few minutes... P, E and I were all up and had breakfast... I was here in in the room we laughly call the study which is directly across from the lounge room divide by the hall... P had gone up to the bedroom which is at the front end of the house at the beginning of the hallway and E had gone to have a shower in the bathroom at the other end of the hall in the back end of the house - both had closed the doors... I was typing away, totally ignorant of what was happening across in the lounge room only a few feet away...

I was just about to press 'send' to the email I was writing when I was aware that there were running feet and raised voices... I thought for a minute, as I lifted my head out of my cloud of concertration, that Edith our loveable, but rather naughty cat was up to her old tricks again... But no, it seemed more urgent than that... By the time I got up and taken literally a few steps out into the hall I was shocked to see that the house was full of smoke... At that moment the smoke detector went off...

This is what happened... E had left a pair of her track pants a bit closer to the heater than was normal when she went off for her shower. She had got undressed and was waiting for the water to warm before she hopped in - she smelt a faint smokey smell that quickly became stronger in the few seconds she thought about it - she wondered if the overhead exhaust fan was playing up - and she quickly put some clothes on to come out and get one of us to have a look at it... P, meanwhile was making the bed - we had the window open and he paused in his bed making and thought someone in the neighbourhood was burning their morning toast - except the smell became suddenly stronger and more urgent... He came out into the hall to investigate, meanwhile E entered tha hall from the other end only to see smoke and by the time she reached the lounge room, saw P stamping on what was to be the last of her track pants... By that time I had stood up to go see what the noise was all about, P had carried the track pants to the kitchen only for them to re ignite in his hand... Meanwhile the carpet was smouldering in two spots sending out foul smelling smoke... The house was thick with smoke it permated into all the rooms. Because of my chronic sinus problem I could not smell anything until I actually stepped into the hall. Once we had everything under control, we opened every door and window, but it took nearly the whole day for the smoke and smell to go away completely... We were all shocked and I was overwhelmed, firstly how quickly it took the track pants to burst into flame and secondly that I hadn't been able to smell smoke only a few feet away... Only for P quick thinking the damage could have been alot worse than a scorch mark in the carpet and of course the loss of a pair of track pants. E was shocked that in a moment of her not really thinking about how close she had put something to the heater, it could have caused a disaster... We all hear about house fires starting from clothes too close to heaters or cooking oil left unattended for a few minutes and I guess we all think it couldn't happen to us - but believe me yesterday was a testament that it can and does happen - and very, very quickly at that...

On a happier note we had G and her husband K for dinner last night. It was an enjoyable night and G and I had a couple of cocktails which she made. After the events of the morning it was 'just what the doctor ordered' - so to speak... It was an easy night and I realised how much I missed having friends around for dinner. G took home the first Harry Potter book to read - she wasn't convinced she would enjoy it as it didn't sound like it was her thing... I will let you catch up on her comments about it on her other blog...

I had another encouraging email which is related to what I had previously written about yesterday... I have permission from the author to use her name and when I think about it some more will share what we have spoken about...

A few years ago I wrote a draft for short story about a quilt and lately it has been on my mind that I would like to have another look at it and revise it. It was centred around a small girl as she watched family members constructing a quilt. Each of the family members tell a story about the patch that they are adding to the quilt. At the time I wrote it I knew very little about quilt constuction and because I was writing it for a child I wanted to keep it was simple as I could... LOL - not that I know very much more about quilt constuction now however I can see where I might be able to 'embellish' the story more fully... Stay tuned as I may need some technical advice...

1 comment:

Linda said...

How terribly scary - and thank heavens you are all okay.