Up in smoke
Nearly ten years ago, I was in an apartment fire that claimed the life of a close friend and was the reason I was in the intensive care unit of a Los Angeles hospital for two months. With the ten year anniversary fast approaching, fire safety is a very important issue to me, and should be considered by others. It is important to practice fire safety and review often.
More than four thousand Americans die each year in fires, and approximately twenty thousand are injured (U.S. Fire Assoc.). Deaths resulting from failed emergency escapes are particularly avoidable. Having a sound escape plan will greatly reduce fire deaths and protect you and your family's safety if a fire occurs(Fire safety tips.com). The best plans have two ways to get out of each room. If the primary way is blocked by fire or smoke, you will need a second way out. A secondary route might be a window onto an adjacent roof or using an Underwriter's Laboratory (UL) approved collapsible ladder for escape from upper story windows. Make sure that windows are not stuck, screens can be taken out quickly and that security bars can be properly opened. Also, practice feeling your way out of the house in the dark or with your eyes closed. Having a working smoke detector more than doubles ones chances of surviving a fire. I am living proof.
September 11, 1997, I was in Los Angeles visiting my girlfriend, Sasha, who moved from Northern California just after our high school graduation to attend USC. She was a successful, hardworking student on a full scholarship trying her hand at a double major. This made it difficult for her to come home, so a friend and I came to her!
That morning she drove to school and returned a bit early to join my friend Brian and I for lunch and a trip to the beach. There we sat enjoying our burgers when the smoke alarm sounded. While at her house earlier in the year, I heard the alarm and exited the building. Each time, I was told the alarm was faulty and to ignore it. This time, Sasha told me to ignore it. I looked out the window and opened the door and saw nothing alarming. We continued eating, but the alarm didn’t stop. I was getting nervous. I looked out the window from her fourth floor apartment, then out the door to the indoor hallway to the other apartments and there it was. A massive ball of black smoke, headed down the hallway straight for us. I slammed the door and told Sasha calmly “ The building is on fire.” Her eyes opened wide and she jumped to her feet. I looked on the back of the apartment door for an emergency evacuation plan. There was none.
The three of us clasped hands and ran down the hallway away from the smoke. Each and every fire extinguisher was missing from the wall. When we reached the end of the hallway, we came to a closed door. This door had never before been closed. All doors in the complex were held open by magnets, set to shut once an alarm sounds. My fire safety tips from elementary school suddenly kicked in. I remembered to touch the door for heat. I placed the backs of my hands on the door and it was hot. On the other side of that door was a burning mattress. A sixteen year old lit the mattress on fire and ran away in a panic! Had I opened that door, the oxygen on our side of the door would have fed the flames and exploded. I turned to my two friends and told them it wasn’t safe. It was time to try going through the smoke to the other exit. As we changed directions, the power went out and emergency lighting never turned on.
We started for the other end of the building. The smoke was so thick we could not see the apartment doors, which were painted a bright blue color. We bent down low in an effort to avoid inhaling the thick hot smoke. As we ran to the other side, we banged on other tenants apartment doors and screamed for help. No one opened their door for us. In total darkness, we each ran directly into the wall at the opposite end of the building. We hit the wall and fell like dominos. Completely disoriented, I looked for an exit sign to point the way, again, no such thing. Sasha screamed until I couldn’t hear her anymore and Brian said goodbye and fell asleep from smoke inhalation. I chose a direction to crawl in and started slowing down. I said goodbye to my family in my head and the next thing I knew I was in a hospital the following day. The fire department was called and upon entering the building they stumbled over me, convulsing, only six feet from the exit.
After a two month struggle to regain my entire body’s muscles and a long fight to breathe without the aid of a machine, I am healthy and alive today.
A fire can engulf a home in sixty seconds (Home Safety Council). It is critical to evacuate a building the moment an alarm sounds. Most people assume an alarm sounding is a mistake or a drill and continue working. There is no harm done in being cautious. Had I left that building as soon as the alarm sounded I wouldn’t have spent thirty days on a ventilator and would still function on one hundred percent lung capacity. If we knew what the correct escape route was from our building we could have escaped unharmed. If there were exit signs still illuminated we wouldn’t have hit the wall and would have known precisely where we were and would have known which direction to continue to get out of the building safely. Most important, if the fire doors would have closed with the release of magnets the way they were designed, we most likely wouldn’t have even known there was a fire and would have stayed in the apartment safe and sound.
I am reminded each and every September 11th just how important fire safety is. Whether it’s prevention or evacuation during a fire. Losing a friend, 2 months of my life at only eighteen years old and thirty percent of my lung capacity is a great reason for being cautious. You hear and see “it may save a life” all the time in commercials and on posters but it really can.
More than four thousand Americans die each year in fires, and approximately twenty thousand are injured (U.S. Fire Assoc.). Deaths resulting from failed emergency escapes are particularly avoidable. Having a sound escape plan will greatly reduce fire deaths and protect you and your family's safety if a fire occurs(Fire safety tips.com). The best plans have two ways to get out of each room. If the primary way is blocked by fire or smoke, you will need a second way out. A secondary route might be a window onto an adjacent roof or using an Underwriter's Laboratory (UL) approved collapsible ladder for escape from upper story windows. Make sure that windows are not stuck, screens can be taken out quickly and that security bars can be properly opened. Also, practice feeling your way out of the house in the dark or with your eyes closed. Having a working smoke detector more than doubles ones chances of surviving a fire. I am living proof.
September 11, 1997, I was in Los Angeles visiting my girlfriend, Sasha, who moved from Northern California just after our high school graduation to attend USC. She was a successful, hardworking student on a full scholarship trying her hand at a double major. This made it difficult for her to come home, so a friend and I came to her!
That morning she drove to school and returned a bit early to join my friend Brian and I for lunch and a trip to the beach. There we sat enjoying our burgers when the smoke alarm sounded. While at her house earlier in the year, I heard the alarm and exited the building. Each time, I was told the alarm was faulty and to ignore it. This time, Sasha told me to ignore it. I looked out the window and opened the door and saw nothing alarming. We continued eating, but the alarm didn’t stop. I was getting nervous. I looked out the window from her fourth floor apartment, then out the door to the indoor hallway to the other apartments and there it was. A massive ball of black smoke, headed down the hallway straight for us. I slammed the door and told Sasha calmly “ The building is on fire.” Her eyes opened wide and she jumped to her feet. I looked on the back of the apartment door for an emergency evacuation plan. There was none.
The three of us clasped hands and ran down the hallway away from the smoke. Each and every fire extinguisher was missing from the wall. When we reached the end of the hallway, we came to a closed door. This door had never before been closed. All doors in the complex were held open by magnets, set to shut once an alarm sounds. My fire safety tips from elementary school suddenly kicked in. I remembered to touch the door for heat. I placed the backs of my hands on the door and it was hot. On the other side of that door was a burning mattress. A sixteen year old lit the mattress on fire and ran away in a panic! Had I opened that door, the oxygen on our side of the door would have fed the flames and exploded. I turned to my two friends and told them it wasn’t safe. It was time to try going through the smoke to the other exit. As we changed directions, the power went out and emergency lighting never turned on.
We started for the other end of the building. The smoke was so thick we could not see the apartment doors, which were painted a bright blue color. We bent down low in an effort to avoid inhaling the thick hot smoke. As we ran to the other side, we banged on other tenants apartment doors and screamed for help. No one opened their door for us. In total darkness, we each ran directly into the wall at the opposite end of the building. We hit the wall and fell like dominos. Completely disoriented, I looked for an exit sign to point the way, again, no such thing. Sasha screamed until I couldn’t hear her anymore and Brian said goodbye and fell asleep from smoke inhalation. I chose a direction to crawl in and started slowing down. I said goodbye to my family in my head and the next thing I knew I was in a hospital the following day. The fire department was called and upon entering the building they stumbled over me, convulsing, only six feet from the exit.
After a two month struggle to regain my entire body’s muscles and a long fight to breathe without the aid of a machine, I am healthy and alive today.
A fire can engulf a home in sixty seconds (Home Safety Council). It is critical to evacuate a building the moment an alarm sounds. Most people assume an alarm sounding is a mistake or a drill and continue working. There is no harm done in being cautious. Had I left that building as soon as the alarm sounded I wouldn’t have spent thirty days on a ventilator and would still function on one hundred percent lung capacity. If we knew what the correct escape route was from our building we could have escaped unharmed. If there were exit signs still illuminated we wouldn’t have hit the wall and would have known precisely where we were and would have known which direction to continue to get out of the building safely. Most important, if the fire doors would have closed with the release of magnets the way they were designed, we most likely wouldn’t have even known there was a fire and would have stayed in the apartment safe and sound.
I am reminded each and every September 11th just how important fire safety is. Whether it’s prevention or evacuation during a fire. Losing a friend, 2 months of my life at only eighteen years old and thirty percent of my lung capacity is a great reason for being cautious. You hear and see “it may save a life” all the time in commercials and on posters but it really can.
posted by Natalie at
8:01 AM
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