Nothing like a brush w/ death to put you on the straight & narrow

[Douglas Skipworth]

What is your fire plan for your rental house and your residence? You better have one.

Tonight at 9:00, the motor in the clothes dryer at my personal residence in Memphis caught on fire.

The kids and I were just finishing up our weekly laundry chores when we heard a loud noise and smelled smoke coming from the laundry room.

I hopped up from my computer and rushed to empty the dryer of its contents (bed sheets). As I pulled the sheets out of the dryer, I saw dark smoke coming out of the lent filter. Approximately 60 seconds later, flames were billowing out of the bottom of the dryer.

Amazingly, my 8-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter rushed to the fire extinguisher and instructed me to grab it and empty it on the fire. 

After three attempts over three minutes, I could not extinguish the flames. At that point, my 13-year-old daughter called 911.

We immediately vacated the house.

The first thing we did was huddle together and thank God for safely getting us out of the house. Then we prayed that He would protect our home and our belongings.

As we stood waiting for the fire department we imagined the worst and started playing the "what if" game.

What if the house burns to the ground?

What if we had not heard the motor burn up and acted immediately?

What if we had not had a fire extinguisher or called 911?

What if the kids did not know all of the fire safety rules?

What if we had been asleep or away from home with the dryer running?

What if we didn't have the right insurance coverage?

What if the fire department doesn't respond quickly?

As our minds raced and hearts pounded for what seemed like a lifetime, we finally heard the sirens of the four Memphis Fire Department trucks that sped to the scene in less than five minutes.

Our prayers were answered as they cleared the smoke from the house and removed the extremely charred dryer in less than 15 minutes! 

Remarkably, the fire burned for over 20 minutes in the dryer without causing fire damage to any of contents of the laundry room or the rest of the house (and only minimal smoke damage). Praise God!

All that said, we were all terribly shaken by the experience.

At the same time, we were very glad we had a plan.

Thankfully, at no point during the incident were any of our lives truly in danger. However, if only a couple of variables had changed we really might have been in jeopardy for our lives.

The kids and I are walking away from this evening grateful (luckily, my wife was out with her sister for the evening). 

However, we are also walking away with a renewed since of safety and precaution. I pray that you would, too.

-Have a fire plan

-Have working smoke detectors and fire extinguishers

-Teach your children and your tenants what to do in case of a fire

-Have proper insurance

-Don't run your clothes dryer unsupervised

-Thank a fireman