Butterfly Chic Boutique Blog

Not sure anything on the business will get done this week, my in-laws’ house burned to the ground around 4am this morning. Please keep them, Chris & Sherry, in your prayers as they try to rebuild their lives. They lost everything, but they did make it out of the house safely. Unfortunately, their pet cat, Annie, didn’t

I got them a free hotel room tonight, found the number for our local red cross, gave them some clothes and personal items and some money and am now preparing a list of “thing to do after fire loss” as I know their minds are probably racing and they aren’t thinking clear right now.

They think it was an electrical fire that started upstairs. Their other 2 sons, thankfully, are away at collage so were not in the house. Their church and the congregation have given them food, money and they have had 3 fellow church members offer them 3 seperate vacant houses to stay in for a while for free.

They have insurance, it’s just a matter of paperwork and red tape and waiting now.

Please be sure to change the batteries in your smoke detectors twice a year (at time change is recommended) and keep fire extinguishers throughout the house, you never know what part of the house will catch on fire if it is electrical, if your fire extinguishers are in adjoining rooms, you may not be able to reach one. They had 2. One in the kitchen, one in the laundry room (right off the kitchen) where the breaker box was. They could not get to them and barely made it out of the house in time.

Keeping a fire extinguisher in the bedroom, may save your life.

Check smoke detectors.
Make an escape plan.
Practice Fire Safety.

Take your children to the local fire department to see a fire fighter in full dress (many kids die in fires every year because they are afraid of the firefighters that come to rescue them, your child will be hearing strange sounds, smelling smoke and seeing flames, all very scary. Kids often think firefighters in full dress are aliens or ‘bad men’ and hide from them)

Check out these sites
http://www.firesafety.gov/
http://www.mcgruff.org/Advice/fire_safe.php?gclid=CNjd79zAhpECFQs9gQod6gap-A
http://www.befiresmart.com/?src=s=gglk=fire%20safetyC=FireSafety_NationalG=BeFireSmart_Fire_Safety_ExactM=Exact

See if your local fire department has or knows of a fire safety house your child can go through. It is usually a small trailers, set up like a real home (on a smaller scale) They will talk to you kids about fire safety and what to do in a fire and how to get out safely. The lights are then turned out and the house is filled with smoke. Then the fire fighters help you child crawl down the stairs on their belly and make them reach for their hand in the dark (just like they might have to do to get out of a real fire)

Don’t think you will be a burden, fire fighters are happy to teach kids fire safety. You won’t be bothering them at all. Just call or stop by, they will be happy to see a parent taking time to prevent their child from becoming a statistic.

They risk their lives to save others every day. They love to see a parent taking time to teach their kids fire safety and help make their job of saving children’s lives in emergency a little easier so there are more happy endings. I promise you will make their day.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 20th, 2008 at 23:21 and is filed under children, prayer, prayer request. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.