Fire Safety Stories

Safelincs Fire Extinguisher Saves the Day

Last night I was sitting working at the kitchen table, when a heard a "fizz" sound followed by a "pop" - almost like the sound of a small balloon popping. I continued working, thinking that it must have been one if my daughter's toys. But my mind was still trying to decipher the sound that I'd heard... I thought it was particularly strange because I'd heard the "fizz" before the "pop" - whereas if a balloon had burst or something similar, it would usually be the other way around!

Eventually my curiosity got the better of me and I had to go and see what had made this strange sound.

Well, thank goodness I went to look, because what I found was yellow flames coming from underneath our electric night storage heater.

Fortunately my brain switched into "crisis mode" and I quickly moved anything flammable away from the storage heater, and switched off the electricity supply to that heater. I then dashed to the cupboard in our kitchen where we store our 1kg powder fire extinguisher and fire blanket.

While racing back to the fire, I pulled the pin out of the extinguisher, and then I took aim and blasted powder at the fire.

Within three blasts from the extinguisher the fire had completely gone out! My wife and daughter came rushing through to see what all the commotion was about, and I explained what had happened.

It was shocking how quickly the fire spread, and I was so grateful that I knew exactly where the extinguisher was and how to use it without thinking!

This experience really caused us to re-think our fire protection -- especially with a young child in the house. Within hours I'd re-located all our extinguishers to make sure they were easily accessible from key locations around the home. And I made sure that my wife also knew exactly how to use the extinguishers so that she could also react quickly in the event of a fire.

It really was a terrifying ordeal, but as a result we have become much more diligent about extinguisher locations and making sure that we are all fully familiar with how to use each type of extinguisher -- and the types of fire on which they can be used.

A massive thank you to Safelincs that our trusty extinguisher worked first time at the very moment that we needed it!!

Fire Safety Story #64

Last June there was a major fire at an electricity distributing site in Dartford, Kent and as a result most of the areas in and around Bexleyheath, Barnehurst, Dartford, Welling, Sidcup and Erith had no electricity for 3 days. After 18 hours of complete power failure, some electricity was provided by a 3-hours-on and 3-hours-off rota system to some affected households. In all, over 100,000 households were affected by this power cut. There were no street lights or traffic lights functional during the entire period.

My sister and her family live in Barnehurst, but were away in USA during the powercut. Their two children, boy aged 23 and daughter aged 21, were staying at home and during the first evening of the power cut they lit some candles in the house to avoid staying in complete darkness. At about 11pm, before going to bed, the son put out all the candles except one that was in a container on a plastic stool outside his sister's room on the first floor. This was left lit because the sister was very scared of sleeping in total darkness. Unfortunately, at about midnight the fire alarm in the house went off and the son got up to find the candle had burnt through and the plastic stool was on fire. He woke up his sister and both of them tried to put off the fire by getting water from the bathroom. However, the fire got worse as one of the bedroom doors caught fire through the burning carpet underneath the stool. The boy tried to use his mobile to call the fire brigade but could not get through as the failure of the electricity had taken out his network service. Their Virgin Media home phone was also not working during the power cut. He sent his sister out to seek help. She shouted “fire... help!” and luckily one of the neighbours managed to ring the fire brigade. Not sure if he used a mobile or a BT landline, which was working throughout the power cut.

Fortunately, the fire brigade arrived within 5 minutes and quickly put the fire out. Most of the first floor was damaged but the ground floor and the roof of the house were okay. The kids were not allowed to go in the house as the gas and electricity to the house was cut-off for safety reasons. They went to stay with my mother, their Nan. It is now just over a year since this happened and the house is still undergoing the final stages of repair for the family to move back in! However, was it not for the fire alarm in the house going off, this incidenct could have resulted in a major tragedy where lives could have been lost and many more houses adjoining this house could have burnt down.

The electric supply company responsible for the powercut clearly cannot be held responsible for the fire in the house but is not even paying a single penny to most of the residents who had no electricity for 3 days. A mere £50 per household was offered to a few households that were not on the rota system and had no electricity during the entire 3 days. A government enquiry is on-going to determine if the electric supply company was negligent in its duty to properly secure and maintain the distribution site where the fire started. It is hoped that some important lessons will be learnt as the electricity company had no backup available at all, even though the company has been making vast profits for its foreign owners!

Fire Safety Story #63

Well my story was a few years ago now. I was 15 and my parents went for a few drinks at the local bar with my friends parents. They were only away for an hour or so when me and two of my friends decided we were hungry.

We decided to make some chips. The wrestling was on the TV and we were excited at ogling Batista's body! After the chips were done we settled down to watch wrestling again, while eating our scrummy chips covered in tomato sauce.

My friend only lived in a small flat at the time, and the kitchen was like a narrow corridor with the back door at the very end of it. It wasn’t long before the living room was filled with smoke!

I rushed into the kitchen to see what had happened and the chip pan was on fire! In my excitement I forgot to turn it off. A coat was nearby but I couldn’t get to the sink, as it was at the other end of the cooker and the fire was too big to get past. I thought it would be okay to use to smother the flames anyway. I put it over the top, but to my horror it caught fire, now setting the whole kitchen bench on fire!

We couldn’t get to the back door and the front door was locked and we couldn’t find the key. By the time we got out of the flat we were all coughing badly. We knocked on a few neighbours doors to try and help us but nobody was answering. I froze on the landing of the flat which by now was also consumed with smoke.

Luckily one neighbour did hear our screams and came to our aid in calling the fire brigade, but I was still frozen in the corridor. By the time our parents arrived back I was on the floor with the fire brigade’s breathing mask on me and drifting in and out of consciousness.

I am so thankful to the fire brigade and the neighbour that day otherwise my friends and I may not have been so lucky.

I have never touched a chip pan since and I now teach my children the importance of always knowing what your escape plan will be!

Fire Safety Story #62

One night, my cousin’s family were asleep. It just so happens that the day before they were teaching the kids about fire safety and what to do if they smell smoke, see flames or the fire alarm goes off at home.

Suddenly, the six year old ran in to her five year old brothers room, woke him and asked him to calmly grab the rabbit cage from the kitchen, run in to the garden, put it down and then grab the two kittens from the basket in the kitchen and put them with the rabbits. The time was 3am.

Meanwhile, my niece ran downstairs with the gerbil from her room and put her in the garden, then she told my nephew to go to his room and grab his two favourite toys and she did the same.

They met in the garden, and only now did my niece, who was tired and confused from being asleep, remembered her parents. Thinking it was too dangerous to go upstairs again she went in the kitchen and rang her dad's mobile. After a few rings he answered and she explained about the fire alarm going off. Without thinking, the parents ran down stairs in to the garden where their mum realised there was no fire alarm going off.

Dad checked the house… everything was fine. They later realised my neice was dreaming the fire alarm going off and it woke her up, and she thought it was real and jumped out of bed to implement the fire drill we taught them. The parents realised she saved her brother 1st, which was good, but she made a mistake by not waking her parents straight away.

She also saved the pets and favourite toys before even thinking of waking her parents up… nice to know the parents were at the bottom of the list! She now says she wants to be a firewoman!

Fire Safety Story #61

During the summer, my smoke alarm began beeping intermittently through the night. After ensuring no fire was occurring I came to the conclusion that the pips were the smoke alarm signalling that it required a new battery.

After changing the battery as recommended by the beeping I returned to bed only to be awoken again shortly with further beeps. Assuming a faulty battery, I threw some clothes over my pyjamas to go to the local 24 hour garage to buy a new battery, taking the beeping smoke alarm with me on the passenger seat as to not awake my sleeping wife and son. I purchased a battery from the garage and replaced it in the car. Halfway home the smoke alarm began beeping once again. Doing a U-turn to the garage, I complained to the night attendant about another faulty battery and after initially questioning the problem, he agreed to swap it for a new one.

Returning home, I replaced the battery and went back to bed before being shortly awoken by yet more beeping. It turned out that there were two gnats trapped near the sensor causing it beep! I did feel rather silly afterwards, but I have learnt to always check for gnats before blaming the battery!

Fire Safety Story #60

We have a large Great Dane called Dai-bo (we also have a Collie and a puppy Great Dane) whom we always considered to be rather dopey. We adopted him as a year old thug who had been thrown out of many homes and was about to be put down when we heard about him through The Dane Rescue Association. He was brought to us on a long pole but one look at us and it was love at first sight. Turned out all he needed was other dogs, lots of room (we had a farm at the time) and heaps of TLC. He was also, as it turned out, rather deaf. We would call and call him before we realised that he was not stubborn but hard of hearing.

We got used to his slow ways but always made allowances for him. Every night I would put the washing machine on in the utility room as we incurred so much washing with all the farm duties etc. The farmhouse was about 250 years old and while we did necessary renovations, we kept the style of the place. Our downstairs smoke alarm was in the kitchen but with 22" thick walls - sound did not travel easily. One night, the washing machine caught fire and within minutes Dai-bo started the most unearthly howling - then the other dogs began to bark. Upstairs, we had not heard the alarm, but we certainly were woken by all the caterwauling below and rushed to the scene. Smoke was billowing from the utility room but fortunately the fire had only just begun. Grabbing the fire extinguisher we were able to get it under control and my husband dragged the machine outside where the fire was contained completely.

Who knows, we might have eventually heard the smoke alarm but Dai-bo was never again criticised for being slow or deaf as he had saved the day and possibly the house and our lives. He is now 11 and we moved to a smallholding due to a sudden chronic illness that I developed. Dai-bo has continued to help by learning to pick me up when I fall (frequently). He is fairly old for a Dane but we hope he will have a few more happy years with us yet. He has also trained our new pup to be his ears and on her signal, will bark to tell us when someone comes to visit.

Fire Safety Story #59

This is not an amusing story, but more a case of how dangerous one lady can be -- and that is me!

In the past week I have left a tea-towel on top of my oven and set it alight. Luckily I put it out by putting it in our courtyard garden and spraying the garden hose at it.

Two days after that, whilst cooking, I placed my plastic chopping board too close to the oven and before I knew it the side had started burning. Stupidly, I tried to pick it off my worktop and the plastic stuck to my finger. I couldn't get it off, so I have a nice burn on my finger now!

My last and final incident this week was when I ironed my daughters top. I put the iron on the side then stupidly forgot it was cooling down and placed some burger buns in a bag next to it, so the plastic wrapping started burning. Luckily I realised before it set alight.

So all in all I think I'm a bit dangerous when it comes to fire safety! So although not a funny story, I thought I would share it in hope someone reads this and doesn’t make silly mistakes like me, as not only have I got a burn mark on my finger, I also have no iron, as I couldn't get the burnt plastic off it!

Fire Safety Story #58

As a child in a house with an open fire, we used to have a magic trick that involved throwing sugar on the fire. It would flare up with a blue flame. All was well as long as one just used a pinch, but throwing half a sugar bowl on one day resulted in singed hair and the chimney set alight. We never did it again.

Funnily enough, it was believed at the time that if your chimney was alight then putting salt on the fire would put it out. I don't know if that was true or just an "urban myth" as we call it these days.

Strange times indeed with various condiments been thrown on the fire for various effects. Silliness really, and we wouldn't dream of doing it now.

Fire Safety Story #57

It`s a good few years ago now, going back to when the kids were all small, 6yrs down to 10 months or so. I was sitting chatting to my hubby one night, when I suddenly said to him "you`re not smoking..." and flew upstairs like a rocket.

I was greeted by the 4 boys sitting in a row on the bed watching the cot and teddy in it both smouldering. I literally chucked them all out of the bedroom and grabbed the bathroom bin, filled it with water and threw it over the cot.

It was a quick shopping trip to B&Q for more smoke alarms, and loads of shouting , scolding and telling off later before I felt safe again. Smoke alarms on all the bedroom ceilings and landing to go with the existing one in the downstairs hall was probably a bit of overkill, but maybe not.

With teenagers having all their electrical equipment and tangles of wires, they were probably a really good investment.

I still get a really bad feeling in the pit of my stomach when a news item about a housefire tragedy comes on. Thank goodness my husband wasn’t smoking at the time.

It turned out to be one of the boys playing with a lighter. We learnt to keep stuff well out of their reach after that!

Fire Safety Story #56

My elderly neighbours (both over 75) have closed doors and fire alarm to thank for their lives.

In the middle of the night, the lady woke to hear an alarm going off. Unfortunately she assumed it was one of her husband's gadgets, so lay listening to it for 10/15 minutes.

Eventually, fed up, she woke her husband and told him to go and switch whatever it was off. He went downstairs, opened the kitchen door to discover it full of acrid smoke.

He closed the door, rang 999 and got his wife out.

The kitchen was gutted, and the firemen had to wear breathing gear, etc, but managed to save the house.

The fire was due to an electric fault in the fridge. No-one could ever have foreseen this, and they owe their lives to the door being shut (primarily), and the alarm at least waking up one of them!

Fire Safety Story #55

This story happened about 20 years ago. I was a mothers help to a family and was folding washing upstairs when one of the boys came running upstairs to me to say the curtains were on fire in the dining room. Unbeknownst to me and his sleeping father, he had been messing with matches in the front room.

I went down to check the authenticity of his story, but before I reached the bottom of the stairs I could see huge orange flames. Quickly (and embarrassingly) I shouted “FIRE!”, just like I had always been told to do. I called all the kids and the father woke up. One of the kids had to persuade him this was for real.

Meanwhile I opened the front door and urged the kids to come out. I was worried a front room window, which we would need to pass on our way out, would break.

I grabbed the two year old and passed him to a neighbour, who had been informed by the teenage daughter dashing out of the door and going to one of them to call the fire brigade. The 4 year old was taking her time to come out of the house. I urged her to come quickly... she said she needed her coat!

Fire Safety Story #54

I was in the living room and my husband was entertaining a friend in the kitchen. As we are from Portugal my husband likes to brag about our great taste in food.

We had recently returned from visiting the family in Portugal and had brought some goodies so we could have a little taste of home now and again.

My husband then decided to cook a Portuguese chorizo (spicy sausage) the same way we cook it Portugal, barbecued in a terracotta dish/griddle. For this you need some sort of burning fuel to put in the bottom of the dish and place the chorizo on top of grid.

While this was happening he was showing the garden to his friend (he also likes to brag about the garden) and before you know it... the kitchen curtain/drape (that is made of chiffon like material) was catching fire and it burns quickly!

Joking aside they noticed it soon enough and managed to put it out. It still destroyed the curtain and burn the wall.

Moral of the story - Never leave fire unattended even if you think is safe!

Fire Safety Story #53

I had just arrived in Nice in France on my holidays. I booked into my hotel and decided I would try to catch a few hours sleep before I went out to explore. Counting sheep did it for me... within 10 minutes I was flat out!

I had just got to sleep when all of a sudden the hotel fire alarm went off. I ran out of bed, pulled some white shorts on and ran down the stairs and stood outside. I obviously didn’t think to check myself before I ran, I just wanted out!

But as I was standing outside everyone was swearing at me. I asked my husband what was wrong and he just laughed at me too! I finally realised when I settled down that my thong that I had worn all day underneath my jeans was luminous pink, and everyone could see it through my white shorts! That not being bad enough, it said “turn me on baby” on the back of them too! OH NO!

Fire Safety Story #52

I was in year 8 at the time, so I would have been 12 or 13. My parents did not buy fire alarms because they thought we did not need them as it would never happen to us. So I was asleep and I woke up feeling the scariest sensation ever... I was burning really hot, unlike anything I had ever felt before. I thought maybe I was ill as I couldn’t see anything so I climbed off my bunk bed and went to my door but something made me turn around. That was when I had seen my whole bedroom aflame.

I was so shocked. I didn’t scream, it was like I was in a nightmare and I couldn’t scream or move my legs. I just felt really weird -- there were balls of flames as my curtains were on fire and my bed -- that is how I felt the heat.

I managed to run to my mother and told her my room was on fire but she told me I was having a nightmare as the previous night I had a nightmare and was sleep walking. I told her that I wasn’t and that my room really was on fire she then started to see the smoke and ran into my room I did not realise that my brother was still in my room as he had been playing on the Playstation and fell asleep. He was surrounded by the flames but luckily my dad managed to drag him out of the room before he could be harmed. We then called the fire brigade but my dad managed to get most of the fire out but burnt his hands badly.

After this scary incident the fire brigade spoke to us and made us fit smoke alarms so that it would never happen again. The only thing that is annoying is when you are making toast and the fire alarm goes off, but it does not matter as they can really save your lives. If I had not woken up I don’t know what would have happened.

Fire Safety Story #51

I was sharing a house with three other lads and living on the ground floor. It was the weekend and it was only me and one of my house mates in the house as the others had all gone away. I had been up most of the night and was in need of some sleep so went to bed around 9 in the morning. My house mate had gone out for the day and he had accidently left a pile of his CDs on top of his stereo amp, covering the air vents used to keep it cool! Consequently it caught fire and set off the fire alarms. It woke me up and being half asleep wandered round the house to check all was well.

The fire alarms went off regularly due to burnt toast/cooking and smoking in rooms, etc. I knocked on my house mates door and there was no answer. Being the only one in the house I turned the alarm off, which was quite common, and had another quick scout around the house but could not see or smell anything wrong. All my house mates’ doors were locked, and so I went back to sleep in bed.

I was woken some time a bit later with a fireman coming through my door saying I needed to get out quickly as there was a fire in the house upstairs! All the bedroom doors were fire doors and it had contained the fire in his room, but luckily someone walking by the back of the house saw the thick black smoke from the now burning and melting CDs and the rest of the contents of the room.

Apparently they could also see flames and the window had blown out through the heat and pressure. Thankfully they called 999 and the fire brigade managed to save the rest of the house. My house mate was left with nothing and the landlord had a severely burnt room and a hole in the floor.

Apparently, if it had been left much longer, the story would have been quite different. I am lucky really, and realise the importance of fire safety now and so do the rest of the people I was living with, and the landlord of the house!

Fire Safety Story #50

I'm pleased to say mine is not actually a fire story but more of a smoke story.

I have two sons aged 4 and 2 years old. I was cooking dinner for the boys and my eldest was upstairs and fell over so I went to him and the grill and cooker was on downstairs. My two year old has started to speak but only a little. He saw the smoke and stood behind the stair guard and alerted me and then the smoke alarm went off. The reason I wanted to share my story was my two year old was shouting "Fireman Sam". He realised and understood the dangers to an extent.

So educate your children and also we mums always have a million things on the go but just to remember it only takes a minute for a tragedy to occur and thank god for the smoke alarm!

Fire Safety Story #49

It was 3AM on a hot, sticky and sultry night when our fire alarm began shrieking, jolting both my husband and I to our feet, even before we had properly awoken.

"Fire!" we both thought, and sniffed in unison. Nothing...

My husband silenced the insistent noise while I began to investigate, beginning in the kitchen. Everything seemed fine; no hot plugs, no wisps of smoke. In the lounge, the TV, switched off at the wall, was OK. My husband checked in the airing cupboard, and couldn’t see anything wrong with the immersion heater, so we headed back to bed.

Half an hour later, unable to settle, I made a pot of tea, but to no avail. Neither of us could get back to sleep, so we got up and dressed. It was a beautiful morning, with the promise of another hot and sunny day to come, so we went out for a stroll around the garden in the peace of the dawn.

It was then that we noticed it. A neighbour's bonfire, almost out but still slightly smouldering, with the pungent smoke being wafted in our direction by the gentlest of breezes.

Thanks, Derek, for that rude awakening.

Fire Safety Story #48

I was at work when the office secretary started screaming that there was a fire in reception. Me and my colleagues ran to reception and could see that a fire had started in one of the large plant pots because a client had tried to put out a cigarette stub in the soil. Unfortunately the soil was quite dry as it was a hot day, so the soil and plant pot caught fire because the cigarette stub was not put out properly.

Without hesitation I picked up the fire extinguisher that was in one of the corners in reception, and because I had recently been on a compulsory fire training and safety course I was able to extinguish the flames and fire effectively and quite quickly.

We had no bathroom or kitchen in the office so we had no immediate access to water to put out the fire. If we did not have a fire extinguisher in the office then it may have been a lot worse.

Fire Safety Story #47

Once, when I was 16, I was frying some food and I had no idea how dangerous fire can be and did not think much about how it can seriously damage you. Worse still, I had a very long pony tail at that time.

As the food was nearly ready, I turned to grab an oven glove and continued frying my home made chips. “About 3 to 4 minutes”, I said to myself, shortly followed by “Why are the chips smelling funny... they don’t normally smell odd... a smokey, strange smell”. I could not figure it out, and just assumed that maybe it was just me and I was smelling stuff!

We have an open kitchen cum lounge and my mum was sitting down watching tv. Though she was talking to me, we both had our backs to each other.

All of a sudden she let out a scream and came running towards me! I looked at her thinking “What on earth is the matter with my mum? Has she never seen me fry chips before?!” She was screaming, charging towards me. I could not make out what she was saying until she came close to me: "Your hair is on fire!"

I dropped the oven glove and started screaming too!

Trying to grab my hair while I was jumping up and down , my mum quickly grabbed me by force, opened the cold water tap and shoved my head backwards into the sink. My hair was on fire and my top had burnt. Goodness knows why I didn’t feel any burning sensation on my back. But I had a lucky escape thanks to my mum. If she hadn’t have been there, who knows what would have happened. Suffice to say, I escaped with just burnt hair and a damaged top.

Since that day I respect fire and I have my hair short. I am a mother now and I always tell my kids about the dangers of fire and I try to be careful as much as possible.

Fire Safety Story #46

I have 4 older sisters, 3 who were with me at the time, and my parents. It was winter and to help heat my bedroom, since I was quite young, my father turned on a small electric heater in my room. We'd all gathered in the living room watching a movie.

All of a sudden there was smoke and my father went to check where it was coming from. 'Fire!' he yelled and my mother went quickly to help him shouting at my sisters to get us out of there. My sisters opened the window and climbed out, forgetting all about me. There was so much smoke I didn't know what to do. I waited there hoping someone would come and get me. The smoke kept increasing and nobody came back for me. It hurt my eyes. I couldn't see anything, so I'd covered my face with my hands and started to cry.

At this time my parents were removing important documents from the house, such as our passports, etc. My sisters were outside and our neighbour called the fire department. We didn't know to call ourselves as we didn't know much English let alone what to do in an emergency. As my parents were quickly rushing out, my mother glanced in the living room... She couldn't see anything due to the smoke.

She rushed in to double check and found me in the centre of the room crying. She quickly carried me and we got out of the house. Just then the Fire Brigade arrived and put out the fire within minutes. What had happened was the electric heater was too close to the bedding, which had caught on fire. Luckily for me my mother took a last look in the living room or I wouldn't be here telling you my story.

Fire Safety Story #45

The fire brigade came to my daughter’s school to show the children around the engine and give them a safety talk the other day. My daughter is quite bright but takes everything very literally (she is 4). She listened intently then asked the appropriate questions until they mentioned cats getting stuck up trees. She argued this point with the firefighter for at least 5 minutes saying cats don’t get stuck, they can jump very well (even over houses according to her!) and he was obviously telling the children lies which is very bad and he would get a smacked bum! At this point she was escorted in being told that he was not telling lies and that she shouldn’t argue with those trying to give a talk.

According to the teacher the funniest bit was to happen outside whilst the firefighters were getting ready to leave. They had said their goodbyes and were just getting into the engine when my daughters friend pulled the guys coat so he bent down to talk to her at which point she smacked him on the bum saying he got her friend into trouble and that he really shouldn’t lie in the future!

The teacher said she guessed from the laughing coming from inside the engine that he would have been ribbed for a long time for being a naughty boy and getting his bum smacked from a 4 year old girl

Whilst telling me this story the teacher was crying with laughter...what am I to with her!

Fire Safety Story #44

My story begins one Sunday morning when I had my 4 year old niece Lucy staying with me from the night before.

She was playing in the lounge whilst I was making breakfast. I had bread in the toaster waiting for it to toast.

She called me into the lounge to show me something she was doing and before I knew it... wham!! The smoke detector was going off! Arrgghh! Lucy screamed and ran around the room whilst I ran into the kitchen to turn off the toaster. How many times does this happen - BURNT TOAST! After finally stopping the smoke alarm I had a very worried looking 4 year old to deal with. "I'm scared" she kept saying. I reassured her that it was ok and that the very loud noise was a good thing. It was telling me that there was something burning and that I had to be careful. I explained it was the toast that was burning and that when something burns it makes smoke and that is what makes the loud noise and it is letting the people in the house know that they need to get out of bed or move to another place. She began to look very interested suddenly and then she said ' So when Daddy burns his toast we have to get out of bed?'. 'Yes sweetheart that's right'. I didn't want to scare her so I left it at that for now but she will definitely be told more in the future but I thought it was actually a good starting point for her to learn about fire safety in the home!

Fire Safety Story #43

My boyfriend was staying over one night when I lived at my parents, but they were away. We'd had a few drinks and it was getting on into the early hours so we decided to call it a night. I went to lock the back door and thought I could see light at the end of the next door neighbour's garden. I thought I must be seeing things in my drunken stupor, but decided to check it out. We ventured out into the dark to where the feint glimmer was coming from and it looked like the glowing embers of a bonfire. After a few minutes discussion of whether it really was, or just the effect of the alcohol on our vision, we decided it was definitely getting bigger. Now, did we knock next door and tell them? Would they appreciate a 3am wake-up call? Did they know they left the bonfire? Were they keeping an eye on it themselves. By this time, the fire had definitely started to crackle a little more into life. Next plan - do we call the fire brigade? It's only a small fire. Would they appreciate this non emergency call? Besides, if the neighbours knew and were keeping an eye would they be cross that we'd interfered? Funny what trains of thought you follow, steaming drunk, at 3am.

Then I remembered fire safety lessons from school. You must never leave a fire unattended! Never! As it wasn't (yet) big enough to be classed as an emergency, we decided to tackle it ourselves... Drunk... In our nightwear. We decided that our aim probably wasn’t good enough with buckets of water, besides, it was too far away. Brainwave! Mum and Dad had a hose. Which I'd never used before... But even in the alcoholic haze, I figured how to clip it to the tap. All the while, the fire was growing steadily. Unfortunately, I hadn't clipped the hose on tightly enough and when I turned the water on full blast (with the hose still closed at the spray end, I might also add) It backed up and the hose shot off with an almightly noise, spraying us both and soaking the kitchen! Eventually, we got it on, dragged the hose to the fire and put it out. Still wondering if the neighbours would be cross if they had actually meant to leave the fire on.

Anyway, mission accomplished, we went to bed, safe in the knowledge we'd not wake up to a burning garden.

Lesson of the story -always check you extinguish fires totally!

Fire Safety Story #42

My other half snores like the proverbial freight train. We've tried all the old wives tales to fix it - and we figure until we can afford separate houses it's just one of those things "we" have to put up with... but I digress.

On the nights when I can't stand it any longer, and it's either kill him or move to the sofa, I did the "flounce to the sofa" routine and had just settled myself on the sofa when the dreaded "beeping" from one of the upstairs smoke detectors started.

Having just moved into our house a mere 3 months earlier and having replaced all the batteries in the smoke detectors as a matter of course when we arrived in the house, I waited for only a few seconds for my "saviour" to leap into action and rescue the family from the raging inferno...

(I can be ironic here, having just flounced past the guilty smoke alarm mere seconds before I knew there was no actual fire...)

I also knew that kicking the lump in the bed beside me, holding his nose to stop the noise and shouting in his ear had little or no effect, so I wasn't hopeful that my "knight in shining armour" would arrive to save the day.

HOW WRONG I WAS... seconds later a thud hit the floor above me and a vision arrived in front of me with the words which will forever ring in my head "shut the bathroom window - I can smell smoke and it's setting that flipping alarm off. I can't sleep!"

There was no smoke that night...except that coming from my ears!

We've had a long chat about fire safety since this little incident. My errant other half puts it down to being half asleep. I take fire safety very seriously with 2 small children and a menagerie in the house. I check the smoke alarms regularly and clean them/change the batteries when I need to. It's easy to have a giggle about a silly little incident in the middle of the night - but my other half agrees that it's only funny because there wasn't a fire that night. It really wouldn't be funny at all, had it been a real fire.

He's learning to be more alert, and that's really the moral of this story!

Fire Safety Story #41

We were on holiday on valentines day, 2009 in our beloved motorhome we had had for about a year. There was myself, my husband, my daughter aged 6 at the time, our son who was at the time 2 and our family pet dog Jess, a 9 year old German Shepherd. It had taken over a week to get ready for the trip and was going to be our first long stay away with it, 10 days to be exact, across 4 different camp sites and from one side of the country to another. As you can imagine, the motorhome was well kitted out with all the stuff a family could need for that amount of time including nearly all our clothes, electricals such as cameras, a Nintendo DS, camcorders and all the normal stuff in caravans such as pots, pans, water carriers, sleeping bags, awnings etc.

As it was valentines day we had decided we would not go to the club or do much that day and had therefore planned a 3 course meal in the motorhome as a family. The kids were playing in the park just outside where we had parked the motorhome. We had had starters and main course but couldn’t eat pudding yet so had settled down with a glass of wine. Our daughter came running up shouting about wanting to visit the club and we tried to explain it was out of season and that there wasn’t going to be any entertainment, but she was just so adamant. So, against our better judgement we brought the dog in and secured her within the vehicle and went to change, but our daughter was hurrying us on so we left as we were including the kids in willies. Never mind, we thought, it wouldn’t matter. We had the push chair, our phones and ourselves, nothing else. We said goodbye to the dog and went.

On arriving, the bartender told us he had no entertainment on till about March but would put on a CD for the kids while we played pool. My daughter danced round carefree and happy to just have music on, our little boy watched us enthusiastically enjoying our game of pool. It was lovely. After about 20 minutes we saw blue flashing lights; it was an ambulance. We hoped everyone was ok. 5 minutes later a man from the site burst in and asked us to go with him as one of the motorhomes or caravans had been involved in an incident. My husband remained with the kids as I accompanied him. As I went the man quickly began to speed up which worried me then turned into a sprint. Suffering from asthma, I was somewhat behind but as I slowly climbed the hill it became very apparent that whatever had gone off was very, very bad. There were people crowding round, fire engines, ambulances, police everywhere, children crying and... our motorhome surrounded in flames and burned to the ground. Everything... gone. I am now crying as I am writing this.

I ran towards it and was grabbed by the fire brigade then I ran off and just collapsed against the park fence metres from the pile of ash and debris that was my precious motorhome and all its contents. Then I realised... all its contents... Our poor dog, Jess, would have still been inside. The ambulance crew were trying to get me in the ambulance as I realised I was having an asthma attack. I didn’t let them. The police lady took me in her car and took me back to the clubhouse. We were hours from home, nothing to our name, no money, what were we going to do. What were the kids going to be like.

I ran into the club and just collapsed into my husband’s arms. He, of course, had no idea. I tried to explain but couldn’t speak, so the police officer told him. My daughter ran away and hid so the fireman found her. We answered all their questions best we could. Nothing had been left on, the dog was secured so it wasn’t her. The firemen said they would continue to investigate in the morning once it was light again. But what were we going to do? Thankfully the caravan site owners were amazing. They opened up the shop to us and told us to get what we needed free of charge. They then took us to one of their static vans and said we could use it free of charge for as long as we needed. We rang my in laws who came to fetch us, a 4 hour drive, and we went home.

We slowly started to realise what we had lost… everything; even car keys. All the kids clothes, coats, cameras with precious, irreplaceable images of our kids, my grandmothers keyring and... our dog! All we could envisage was her tied up unable to escape. Our poor pet and family member... .gone! We had to go shopping the very next day for clothes as we had none, other things like cameras came a long time later. Some things were never replaced.

The insurance was paid up so all that was sorted, we even managed to use some of the money to pay off other debts but we will forever be left with a blackness in us of that time. It affects us every day. Leaving the house now takes longer as I have to continually double check all plug sockets and lights are off, that the fire alarms work, that all internal doors are shut to stop any possible fires spreading... just in case. I will NEVER have another motorhome again and can’t even look at them. If one passes on the road I go cold and get shivers and can still to this day see the last image in my head of saying goodbye to the dog for the last time.

We found out that the fire was caused by an electrical fault within the habitation area of the vehicle where all the electrics were housed which had spread to the diesel tank causing the vehicle to explode. We were also told the dog would have passed out from fumes and would have known no pain. We have recently got a new dog to go some way to replace the hole that was left in our lives and are looking into getting a touring caravan.

The one thing we have learned is to MAKE SURE A FIRE ALARM IS INSTALLED as there wasn’t one in the motorhome. As it was, we obviously were not in the vehicle at the time but... what if? It doesn’t bear thinking about, especially with no alarm. All we can hope for is that others may also learn from this.

Fire Safety Story #40

Thankfully we have various alarms dotted around the house that work, but my daughter discovered they can occasionally be annoying when I burnt the bacon one day. I like my bacon really crispy but one particular day I had obviously over done it and ended up with smoke everywhere. My two children both have alarms in their bedrooms, and as I salvaged the bacon, Meg ran upstairs to waft a tea towel at her alarm till it went off. Just as she stopped hers, my sons alarm went off so she ran to his bedroom to stop his. But as soon as she had done this hers went off again! Poor girl spent the next 5 minutes running between the 2 rooms trying to get them both to stop. She opened their windows and shut the bedroom doors but Thomas's went off again before she got to the bottom of the stairs and the whole thing started all over again for another couple of minutes.

It's not quite how I would have chosen to test the alarms and Meg felt she'd had way too much exercise dealing with it but we now shut all the bedroom doors before I cook bacon. Hopefully no-one else has had such an exhausting job as Meg did.

Fire Safety Story #39

I have two different fire safety stories, which at the time were worrying, but now I look back on them, they were both actually very funny!

1) I was used to cooking with electric and so never had to worry about the flames, as with a gas hob. One day I was cooking dinner and, used a wooden spoon which I left on the pan, laying on the handle and over the pan itself. The thing was the bottom part of the spoon hung over the saucepan. I walked away into the living room and 'forgot' about what I was cooking as it was going to take several minutes. The next thing I notice is the smell of burning. I went in to find my spoon burning with a few flames in sight! Where it had hung over the pan, the flames from the hob doing to wood what comes naturally! About a third of the 'bowl' part of the spoon was burnt away! I have kept the spoon as a reminder to make sure I never do it again - and I haven't!

2) This story is more recent. I decided to make a piece of toast. It popped up and I wasn't happy with it, so I put the bread back in. The problem was it was slightly toasted already then it got slightly stuck in the toaster. So it cooked and cooked a bit more. I heard the smoke detector go off and thought it was just burnt. Imagine my surprise when I went in the kitchen to see flames coming out of the toaster! Let's just say the toast was a little more than burnt! I tipped the toast (or what was left of it) in the sink and put out those flames with water. However, some bread was still stuck in the toaster, so I took it into the garden and poured jugs of water to finally put out the flames! Needless to say I needed a new toaster. I am, however, very grateful to my smoke alarm for going off, otherwise who knows what would have happened to the fire.

Fire Safety Story #38

Here’s my best/worst memory of Fire Safety.

I have been brought up with a Fire Safety background, as my Dad was a Fireman in the London Fire Brigade (now retired)

He used to come home (from shifts) and recreate ‘cool’ fire tricks and stuff for us – so that we didn’t end up down the woods near out house, playing with matches and experimenting with fire. He would save us the hassle of burning our eyebrows off by being a ‘cool’ dad and showing us all the funky things (that were massively dangerous) like the Aerosol Can Flamethrower – and (my now favourite) stand a match on the matchbox and flick it/light it at the same time. These were just a few of the very amazing pyrotechnics our Dad used to come home and show me and my brother when he returned from work to quell our need to “experiment” on our own time!

However, curiosity always gets the better of people – and obviously my brother and I are only human.

One day whilst in the aforementioned Woods near to our home, one of our friends who had joined the army cadets had managed to get his hands on some ‘Army Matches’. These came in a super awesome plastic tube, and were thick and long and looked like the macdaddy of matches.

They were longer lasting and harder to put out – military style!

So one day, in the woods, with these magic matches, we thought it would be cool to do the flick match trick. So with this tube having the sandpaper on the lid – we stood the match (head down) on the lighting end, and prepared to flick this army match across the woods, in what we thought was going to be the biggest flame we’d ever seen.

However what we didn’t anticipate was their (previously mentioned by our army friend to us) that the matches are a pain in the bum to blow out.

So we manage to flick this match further than any other match we had flicked – and it landed in the crevice of two branches in a tree in front of us… with the lit end stick outwards.

So as there are zero low branches in this tree, we had to try everything to put this match out – otherwise it was going to burn to the bottom of the match and begin to light the tree!

But as we knew – they were wind proof – so my brother standing on my shoulders trying to blow the match out from a metre away wasn’t going to happen.

Throwing stones, twigs – anything we could find to dislodge this match from its new found shelf were in vain.

We had to watch as this match got down to halfway, which put the flame in contact with the tree, and literally in awe as the tree slowly started to catch on as this slow burning, super army military match stayed alight – massively!

By this point, my brother had now raced home to get my Dad, who with his extra 2 foot or so of height, was able to shoulders my taller (older) army friend and reach the match and (now alight) tree branches.

With his wet tea-towel in hand he was able to put out the flame and save the tree from further burning.

About 6 months later we could see that the two branches were dying and weren’t growing – a reminder of what happened.

I have recently been back there (some 10+ years later) and the tree is still there, just branchless almost, where the two branches that were affected have wilted and died.

A reminder of what could have been.

Fire Safety Story #37

Just wanted to tell you about a trip a friend and I made recently to New York, where I saw in a local information guidebook that a local fire station was offering fire safety talks at the fire station itself.

My male friend agreed to go with me, so off we went, arriving a bit later than we had originally planned for what turned out to be the last 'class' of the day.

Imagine our surprise when we were not only the only people who had arrived for the last class, but also it quickly became apparent to the embarrassment of everyone that the fire safety class was really aimed at children.

Sportingly, the fireman did not betray his amusement at two adult English people turning up for the children’s class, but went through the whole fire awareness/safety training session with us.

Although initially we felt awkward, I have to admit that it was a very useful session as we both learned more than we had even expected to, including the value of having a planned exit strategy should we be unfortunate enough to ever experience a real fire, the need to check for heat before opening any doors and to keep low when escaping from fires as heat and gases rise.

Hope that may help someone in the future!

Fire Safety Story #36

Many years ago, when I was first married and my husband was in the forces, we spent a lot of time apart. When we did get time together we wanted to make it special, so to this end, when he was due home on weekend leave after a long spell away, I prepared a lovely meal for us and, thinking to make the setting romantic, I placed candles in plastic holders all along the wooden mantle-piece of the fireplace in the room.

At the time, we rented a couple of rooms in a house shared by others.

We celebrated his homecoming with a couple of bottles of wine so our wits were dulled. Too much wine, and we both fell asleep in the low glow of the candlelit room.

Some time later, by sheer good luck, I awoke - to find that one of the candles had burned so low it had melted the front of its holder and the flame had got a purchase on the wood of the mantle-piece, which was beginning to burn fiercely. Bits of burning plastic were dripping onto the carpet below.

I dashed to the kitchenette and grabbed a bowl of water which was in the sink and doused the flames.

A lucky escape for us -- and for the other people who shared the house.

All these years later I still feel shame. Had I not woken up, there could have been a major disaster and innocent people could have lost their lives all because of my stupidity.

I have never liked to see candles dotted around a room since!

Fire Safety Story #35

It was a chilly November morning, and the t'ai chi class was in full swing at the disused boys' school here in Peterborough. We were all concentrating on the 108 moves of Taoist t'ai chi, the silent, powerful, walking meditation, which aids the mind as well as the body, bringing a sense of complete wellbeing. Suddenly,

BBBBBRRRRRRRIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG!

...the bell started ringing. Smartly I marched out of the class, remembering the fire safety training - don't go back for belongings, evacuate the building immediately, don't run or panic, head for the nearest assembly point. I marched out of the room, along the corridors, out into the foyer. By this time, half a dozen of my classmates had followed me, muttering that if the others chose not to evacuate then it wasn't our problem.

When we reached the door that leads into the car park, a postman was standing there, looking flustered.

"Uhh.. I t-t-think I jammed your d-d-doorbell" he stammered, turning a nice shade of pink.

And half a dozen shame faced t'ai chi students tiptoed back into the class, found our places in the room, and carried on with our t'ai chi. Oh well, better to be safe than sorry!

Fire Safety Story #34

My dad is something of a safety enthusiast at the best of times, but my family will certainly never forget the summer when he apparently took his brain out for the afternoon.

He had spent the best part of the week constructing a new wooden and corrugated plastic awning at the side of the house to give some shade over the patio, and had just finished it off with some plastic netting underneath to keep the nesting birds at bay.

We were having a BBQ with lots of friends round, and he had just lit the BBQ and left it to heat up. The weather wasn't at its best, and in the time he had gone inside to sort guests out with drinks a brief rain shower had all but put the BBQ out.

Realising this could cause a bit of a problem when it came to feeding the guests, dad pulled the BBQ under the awning to keep it dry. My mum suggested that we cook the food in the oven instead, as she was rather unhappy about the BBQ being under the awning, but dad shooed her away. He then proceeded to attempt to relight the BBQ, but when this failed he committed a cardinal sin by squirting some fire lighting fluid on it.... a little bit too much by all account because the flames leapt up high, causing the netting to catch fire, spewing molten green plastic all over my dad, anyone who happened to be standing next to him, the table with all the salads and side dishes laid out on it and the BBQ itself...

My mum promptly appeared with a fire extinguisher, covering the BBQ, my dad and most importantly the remaining netting, just managing to save the awning from catching fire and melting the roof!

He has NEVER lived this down, and mum always insists on keeping a fire extinguisher next to the BBQ when my dad is doing the cooking!

Fire Safety Story #33

In this hot weather it is easy to forget how dry compost in plant pots can get.

My wife is a smoker. Recently she stubbed a cigarette out on top of the compost in a pot near the back door of our house and thought nothing more about it. Later I commented to her about a smell of burning, but we put it down to one of the neighbours having a barbecue.

Later still, on entering the kitchen I noticed smoke outside through the window. When I checked I found a half melted plastic plant pot with the dry compost smouldering inside. Luckily, there was little or no breeze otherwise one slight gust could have sent the whole thing up in flames, and I dread to think what the consequences might have been.

Fire Safety Story #32

I am a hospital broadcaster at Leeds General Infirmary. We are the second oldest hospital broadcasting service in the UK. Portsmouth registered a day before us. Our founder was Head Porter Charles Hulligan who invited Sir Jimmy Saville to visit the wards on a regular basis and cheer them up. Patient Request Programmes make up a large part of any hospital radio stations output.

A while back I was introducing the 60s track FIRE BRIGADE by the Move when the fire alarm went off. The noise could be heard on the live broadcast via my microphone. I decided not to move but continue broadcasting with the deafening noise ringing in my ear! The patient who had requested the song thought it was a sound effect!

It did turn out to be false alarm... a painter up a ladder smoking within a foot of a smoke alarm. I also learnt that the standard fire call out for the LGI was 5 fire engines made up of 3 tenders, the big ladders and the chute. My mind pictured the difficulties of patients with legs in traction plus other attached devices sliding down the chute. As for the big ladder, even being helped by a fireman could have been embarrassing.

Later on a fellow presenter who was a bit of a joker told me the patient who had requested FIRE BRIGADE had a brother who was a fireman and attended the call out to the LGI. Ha ha... pull the other one!

Fire Safety Story #31

We have a story about when we went on holiday. We thought it would be useful to share as one always assumes that holiday cottages will be properly checked for fire safety!

We arrived at our lovely cottage in settle, Yorkshire for a weeks holiday. The couple who owned the cottage kindly left some fire wood and coal out for us so that we could use the open fire in the cottage.

My husband, Richard, thought it would be a good idea to teach our oldest child, who was four at the time, how to light a fire. So this is what he did, and soon a lovely glowing fire appeared and we all enjoyed its warmth and comfort. The children went to bed and we settled down to a glass of wine and a good book!

Suddenly a tinkling sound was heard and then little firey lumps appeared in the fireplace, simultaneously a neighbour appeared telling us that there was a lot of smoke coming from the chimney.

We rushed upstairs, which was full of smoke and almost impossible to breath in, grabbed the children and got out of the cottage.

Through the window our children watched my husband pouring water onto the flames of the original fire and the fire brigade was called, much to the neighbours excitement.

We were leant warm blankets and tea appeared, probably because the local ladies enjoyed watching the firemen in action! The children then watched as the firemen came in their 2 engines and put out the chimney fire and ensured that it was safe. Luckily it was a clear starry night so we did not get wet or cold!

When we had the all clear after about 2 hours, as it took a long time for the chimney to cool down, we went into our cottage, cleaned up, and then had a good chat about fires!

The children learnt how to light a fire, how to evacuate the building, how to put out the fire and how to telephone the fire brigade all in one go!

We also learnt that you should always check the smoke alarm in a holiday cottage as this one had no batteries in it.

It would not have taken much longer for the children to be overcome with smoke upstairs without us being aware downstairs.

The cottage owners learnt that they must check their smoke alarm and also sweep their chimney as this could have been so much worse...

Fire Safety Story #30

One rather peaceful evening, I was happily preparing my dinner while my housemate, Claire, faffed around upstairs. I had not long got in from work, and was feeling tired from the tedious week. Cooking had become an almost automated affair in our household. I would heat the oven up for my breadcrumbed excuse for food, and Claire would rush downstairs a few minutes later and say,

"Can I shove some chips in there with you?"

It appeared that moving away from home had made me lazy with meals, and I was quickly becoming stuck in a bad routine. Desperate to break the habit before my weight increase broke the waistline in my trousers, I searched for alternative methods to cook.

This was coupled with the fact that the oven in our rented house was tatty to say the least, and the fan seemed to hinder our efforts further by causing our food to heat more unevenly.

On this particular night, I decided to grill my dinner instead. I raised the shelf up closer to the flames, made a neat little baking foil tray for the marinated meat to sit in, and prepared myself for some grilled chicken and salad.

No sooner had I turned my back, havoc broke out. There was an increasingly loud sizzling sound, followed by pops and spitting. Realising this was noisier than I expected, I crouched down and peered into the oven.

My dinner was on fire!

"Claire. Claire. Help. Help!" I screamed.

The oil from the chicken had spat straight up onto the flames, and acted as a burst of fuel. The flames grew bigger and reached down to touch the chicken, where more oil had caught light. Within seconds, the entire shelf was in flames ­ my neat little baking foil tray holding the flaming oil in nicely.

"What do we do?" I squealed at Claire in a high-pitched, panic-stricken voice that normally only dogs could hear.

The "er, er, I don’t know" reaction was not quite the insightful remark I had hoped for, and so I was forced to remind myself that I was an intelligent woman who could cope with a small emergency. My instinct was to grab Claire and run out the house as fast as we could, but I also felt that there must be another solution which could be the difference between the death of the house or the death of just the oven.

Cursing myself for not insisting on some kind of fire blanket, I lifted the oven glove hanging on the door of the open oven (scared of touching anything in case my hand melted to it) and yanked the door shut. Grey plumes of smoke wafted out of the vents at the back of the ancient appliance, and it was at that point it twigged that fire needed certain elements to exist.

"Grab the tea cloth," I said to Claire as I blocked one vent with the oven gloves, "let¹s cut the air off."

Unsure if I was making things up as I went, of if there was actually a chance that this would work, I prepared myself to run. The smoke thinned and ceased completely, and Claire and I peered into the oven together through the dirty glass. Much to our amazement, the fire was out, and the chicken looked back at us innocently; unaware of the fact that we were close to evacuating the house and leaving it there to burn.

Even more surprisingly, my dinner was not beyond salvaging, and had a lovely "flame-grilled" flavour to it. Somehow the oven still worked, and it was in such a bad state already that you would never have known it had been on fire.

When I moved home not long after, I insisted on getting a fire alarm installed, and went on a fire marshal training course at work.

I had been horribly reminded that fire safety is something none of us realise we need to know about until that moment when we are cursing ourselves for not doing something sooner. I don¹t think I will ever forget just how fast all of that happened, even though it didn¹t end too badly.

Fire Safety Story #29

I was making dinner last month for my family, befo

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