"When I was in college, students, who had a little too much to drink, were always pulling the dorm fire alarms in the middle of the night and then running off. These alarm pranks had become a real problem in my dorm and seemed to be happening weekly.I considered myself lucky that I lived on the ground floor and sometimes I would be a little slow evacuating
my room. I assumed it was always just another prank. I had a friend in the dorm who took the fire alarm very seriously and she would come bang on the door to make sure we were getting up and going outside. She became upset with my slacker attitude about evacuating my room every time the fire alarm went off.
I found out why. She lost 2 brothers in a house fire. Her family lived out in the country on a farm, and
frequently used a space heater during the winter. Her parents woke up in the middle of the night to flames and smoke. They were able to get my friend and her sisters out of the house, but the little boys were upstairs in a back bedroom and fire blocked the way.
Her father had loaned his ladder to a neighbor, so when he couldn't get up the stairs, he ran outside to
their bedroom window in an attempt to get the boys to jump out the window. The boys were afraid and wouldn't jump. Her father ran to the neighbor's house to get the ladder, but by the time he got back, the heat and flames kept him from getting into the bedroom. The fire department came, but it was too late. The boys' bodies were found
huddled together in the closet.
Across the country, stories similar to this one happen all too frequently. In the District of Columbia alone, 9 people died in home fires in January of 2009. January and February are typically the busiest months of the year for firefighters.
Firefighters will tell you that a small fire can become an out of control fire within minutes. Plan ahead and practice escape routes with every member of your family. Knowing what to do and doing it quickly can save your family. Check out these resources and learn more about preventing home fires, steps to take to survive a fire, and what to do to after a fire:
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