Do You Have a Plan if Your House Starts on Fire?

This week my family and I were driving to my mother’s house when we saw a house that had black smoke billowing from the windows. I immediately called 911 and stopped to see if anyone was inside. Thankfully no one was inside. The firemen came with their hoses and trucks and put out the fire. No one was injured or hurt from the whole fiasco.

I couldn’t help but think about what I would do if my home were on fire. We have 5 small kids and I wondered if we could get them all out safely. We haven’t really talked about it with them, but we need to be doing drills and teaching them what to do.

I also thought about what things are most important to me, besides my family, and if they were easy to get to. When your home is on fire, it’s not really a good time to start looking for the family photos that are dispersed in 3 different rooms in the house. For me, all I could think of was my family photos. Most everything in my home can be replaced, but pictures of my babies are things that I couldn’t let go of easily.

I came up with a plan to get my family ready for the unthinkable, our home burning to the ground.

            1:Teach my kids what to do it there is a fire. What they should do if they see smoke or hear the alarms.

      2: Plan an escape route for everyone that leads to a group-meeting place that is far from the house.

            3: Have treasured items like photos backed up on discs and in a place that is easy to get to in an emergency.

Losing a home to a fire seems unimaginable, but if I had to lose mine I would hope and pray that my loved ones and my pictures were safe! Everything else in a house is just stuff. In the big scheme of things it means nothing. Sure we would miss it, but not more that our family.

I really would encourage all of you, if you don’t have a plan, to make a plan for your family. It could save a life!