This one is a little more serious! And something I hope everyone will think about!!!
I had the opportunity to talk to someone today after they just lost their home, pets and vehicle in a fire. The more I listened, the more I thought of our own situation and became a little freaked out. His second floor began to cave in before the fire alarms went off upstairs. And he didn't have a fire extinguisher to stop that initial spark. They got out by jumping and because they were awake they knew what had to be done. But had it happened an hour later while they were sleeping, the outcome would have been much different.
So I immediately started thinking:
- Do our Fire Extinguishers work? Do we know where they are? Do we still have any? Are they placed Strategically?
- Could we get out of the house if we were in the room with no windows?
- If we are upstairs and sleeping, could we hear the fire alarms in the basement in time to get out before the floor caves in?
- Do we know whats in our wallets if we had to replace them?
- Does our safety box have everything it needs in it to be able to rebuild our lives and restore our identity?
To think that in a flash, you could have no Drivers License, Debit card, bank card, insurance cards, birth certificates, social security cards... No Identity at all. Not to mention the loss of all personal belongings, pictures and a roof over your head.
So I panicked and decided my Change for the day will be to not Panic. Find comfort that I have protected us the best I can and the rest is not up to me.
Make sure we have a fire plan!
I forced Hubs to humor me, and we tested the garage fire alarms. (they are place by vents so we will hear them upstairs)
We checked the Fire Extinguishers, and they are Good! But discovered we had two, and they were both in the same cabinet... Not so Strategically placed. One of them will be moved.
We have 2 Fire ladders that ARE strategically placed so we could get out of a second story window and hopefully not break any body parts.
Then the Husband gave me a lesson on the fire extinguishers from his Navy Fire Learning Days. How to use them and which to use when. They are different ya no!! We talked about what to do if the curtains caught fire from a spark vs. the stove catching fire while cooking. I think I understand.. just hope I never have to find out if I understood correctly!
Lastly, I've updated the documents for our safety box to make me feel a little better.
I'm not sure you can ever be truly prepared or know how you would react in a situation where you look up to find flames all around. And I'm sure if that ever happened to me, I would still panic.
But at least I know the fire alarms would wake me up, the ladders could help us down, and a fire extinguisher could put out something small before it got to that point.
What about you? Do you have a fire plan, working alarms and extinguishers? Do your kids know where to go and what to do if they had to escape?
-----NeeNee, I'm pointing my finger at you right now-----
That is my Day 2 Change... feel comfortable with the resources I have in the house for emergencies, and if I don't have the right ones, GET THEM!!!
Anyone need to join me for this one?