What could be more welcoming than a warm glow in the fireplace or
sitting around a campfire with your friends? Yet, what could be more
devastating than seeing your home go up in flames?
It can happen in minutes. We had dinner with friends near Sun
Valley. They have a lovely, spacious logwood home. After dinner we watched the
Idaho forest fires bellowing smoke over the distant mountaintops. The setting
sun resembled a red tomato. 10,000 acres had burned down already. “The fire
wouldn’t come down here, would it?” we wondered.
Next day, Highway 20 was closed; the fire had jumped across it. Sun
Valley’s air was thick with smoke. Some smoke had hung in the air for days, but
now it was intense. With a heavy heart I said good-bye to my children and
returned to California.
At home the phone rang. “We’re in Black Butte,” one of my daughters
said, “we got pre-evacuation notices and moved things into storage all day. Do
you remember the house of our friends where we had dinner on your last evening
here? We saw her canyon from a distance—it looked like a volcano, bright orange,
yellow and red! Days later it was confirmed, their lovely home with all mementos
and treasures was devoured in the inferno. Even though Helicopters and
firefighter had been working around the clock to battle the blaze, nothing,
absolutely nothing, was left but the base of three lonely chimneys. Apparently,
the wind had picked up during the night and shifted. It happened with raging
violence and with enormous speed, the smoke getting so hot that it ignited
spontaneously.”
I wanted to learn more about fire and signed up for the CERT
program, an emergency training program that also covers fires. It’s a superb
course and an eye-opener for me. Empty an ashtray into a wastepaper basket, the
ashes continue to smolder and create smoke. It takes two and a half minutes for
the smoke to build up and heat sufficiently to bursts into flame. In another
two minutes the smoke near the ceiling can reaches 800 to 1,400 degrees and set
whole room aflame. If windows and doors are closed, there’s no sign of fire
from the outside until one of the windows explodes and smoke and flame leap outside
and enter other open windows. In another five minutes, nothing will be left of
the house.
Winter, the major season for home fires, is around the corner. Can
you name three major culprits? They are chimneys, free standing heaters and
electrical overload. Chimneys that have not been cleaned are particularly
dangerous. You light a fire in the evening. When it’s totally out, you go to
bed. Yet the soot in the chimney will smolder for hours. If there’s enough of
it, it will burst into flame and set the attic afire.
With dismay I heard the instructor refer to extension cords, which
I dearly love and often use, as highly unsafe. “They are nothing but temporary
fixes”, he said. If covered by a rug, they fray and cause fires. If too many
gadgets are plugged into an outlet, it causes an electrical overload. Older
homes are particularly vulnerable since they were not designed for today’s high
power demand for all the gadgets we own. Consult an electrician; he may avert a
disaster.
One last tip, never use water on a kitchen fire. Especially when
your frying pan is aflame—water will explode the grease into your face! Why?
Because grease is lighter than water. The heavy water dislodges and disburses
the hot grease into the air.
And then there’s another kind of fire—the fire that turns
friendship into love, and love into long lasting friendship, blessed with
understanding, sharing and forgiving. May this kind of fire light and brighten
your life.
Until next time,
Rosi
