Keeping your head in an emergency

Two days ago, there was a terrible pounding on my front door.  Alarmed, I raced to the door and found my neighbor in hysterics.  She screamed, "My house in on fire"!  Sure enough, smoke was pouring out from the roof.

"Did you call 911?" I asked.  She had.  I immediately jumped into a pair of boots.  "What about your dog, where is he"?  He's locked up in my car!!"  Her dog was mean and would bite and I was not about to tackle the dog (pitbull).

I knew her husband was gone, his car wasn't in the driveway, but I asked anyway.  He wasn't home.  Nobody else was in the house.

I was prepared, sort of.  I raced for the fire extinguisher, but I left my mask behind in my hurry.  And my gloves.  I ran across the yard, frozen with snow carrying the fire extinguisher. The fire was coming from the back of the house where the water heater was.  Right next to the fire was a 100 lb propane tank.  I hesitated, knowing that this was very dangerous.

I decided to do what I could and first shut off the propane by closing the valve.  I didn't have any way to disconnect the tank and drag it away, so I turned to the fire.

There was an outside access panel to the water heater and I put my bare hands against it, checking for heat.  Smoke was pouring out and getting into my eyes.  Although it was windy (unusual) I decided to open the panel, hoping that the oxygen wouldn't fan the flames even worse.

I dropped the panel to the ground and using the fire extinguisher, shot the charge into the flames.  The hot water heater had nearly burned through the floor and dropped through.  The extinquisher killed the flames but not the glowing wood.  There was a pool of water nearby, but I had no bucket or container and I yelled for a large pot or bucket.

The neighbor lady found a square container which I was able to use to scoop water out of the pool and douse the glowing embers.  Smoke continued to pour out from underneath the house and I ripped off the siding, dragging the fire extinguisher with me.

The floor was burning under the house and I shot the extinguisher charge up into the hot spots.  I got some of that crud into my lungs and burning insulation.  The extinguisher knocked the embers back, but not out and I crawled back outside and started scooping water up and soaking the burning floor with water flung from the container I had.

I repeated this until I could hear no more hissing or see any more smoke.  I then went inside the house and checked the floor for hot spots.  The place was filled with smoke and we setup a large fan to blow out the smoke through open windows.

The fire department finally showed up, at least 30 minutes after she had called, and they didn't even bring a fire extinguisher!  There was no water truck either, just some guys wearing outfits.  All they had planned on doing was watch the place burn down, which it would have.

They inspected the damage, which was pretty serious.  The hot water heater had burned all the way through the floor and caught the floor and insulation on fire and was just dangling there by the water pipes connected to the top.

Later, when I went by the fire department to get my extinguisher recharged (they couldn't do it) they told me that the place would have burned to the ground before they would have arrived.

Lessons Learned

This is the real point I wish to make.

a) I was ill prepared for this emergency.  Never really occurred to me I'd have to help out a neighbor.  I knew where my extinguisher was, but my spare extinguisher, no.  In fact, it's discharged and totally useless to me. Stupid.

b) I had no bucket handy, although I did know where one wa, but left it behind.  I should have taken one with me.

c) I had no gloves.  This could have easily incapacitated me rather quickly. I probably own 20 pairs, but didn't have a single one with me.

d) I knew exactly where my mask was, but failed to grab this too when I left my house.  This was stupid and I was coughing for an entire day.

e) I had no water on hand to help douse a fire.  This was a gross oversight.  Recently, we had really serious well problems and I had stockpiled over 100 gallons of water.  The well was fixed and the water was in the way, so it was dumped out.

I do have 5 gallon containers set aside for water emergencies, but it wasn't the least bit handy.  The fire extinguisher was an ABC type, good for all types of fires, but still failed to kill the glowing embers in the burned floor, which could have reignited and proceeded to burn the place down.  Water is necessary to get fire dead and out.

f) What else?  This showed me just how important it is to be ready for an emergency.  To know exactly what is needed and what to do when moments matter.  I think my greatest failure was simply overlooking the needs of my neighbor, although I'd have probably made the exact same mistakes fighting my own fire, which thankfully hasn't happened.

Fire is exceedingly dangerous and you really don't have a lot of time to make the right choices.  At this time of year, all the outside lines are frozen here.  My hoses are drained and clear and I know exactly where they are, but there is no spigot to hook them up and no place to get water except from inside a house.

I'll get the extinguishers (both) recharged or replaced, and set aside an 'emergency kit' for exactly this type of emergency, including water, bucket, axe, shovel, wrench (could have removed the propane tank if I had this), boots, mask, gloves and a long sleeve shirt.

I have other neighbors and any of us could need to deal with something just like this.  We all burn wood for heat and everyone uses  propane for either cooking, dryers or even heating.  Plus, it's all forested here and fire in the dry season is a reality. 

Final thoughts.  I was truly taken by surprise, although I shouldn't have, since I've fought fire before.  I wasn't thinking clearly, maybe because the lady was absolutely hysterical and this clouded my judgement.  If I'd kept a clearer head, I'd have handled this a little more safely I think, or at least I'd like to think so.  I hope there's not a 'next time' to find out!

WOW S2S!  Thank you so much for sharing that with us!

WHY did the fire response take so long & was so lacking when it finally get there?  A number of years ago we had a situation in an outlying area of the county that butted up to an incorporated area.  If a homeowner didn't pay a yearly premium to the incorporated town they would simply stand by and watch a house burn.  They would respond though, just to be sure that no lives were in danger but wouldn't lift a finger to fight the fire.  Was this a situation like that?

Dear Hero, Too bad you're not my neighbor. Thanks for posting your work, I appreciate learning the lesson this way.