WHERE THERE’S SMOKE…

You know in cartoons when the character gets a big shock, then cracks appear all over them, and they collapse into a little pile of dust? That’s exactly how I felt yesterday. 


At 6.30am I was jerked awake by the ear-splitting squeal of our three smoke alarms going off. I ran downstairs to smell burning. Smoke was crawling across the ceiling, and for one heart-stopping minute I thought our house was on fire. 


Then I spotted the oil-filled radiator that OH had flicked on as he left for work, to help dry some cement in our newly renovated conservatory. It had only been on for five or six minutes, but the entire top of the heater had already turned black, and smoke was pouring off it. A few minutes more, and it would have been in flames. 


I ran over to flick it off the wall, then spent the next five minutes (it felt like an hour) trying to turn off the shrieking alarms. 


Then I threw the heater outside in the rain. Then I cried. Because my adrenaline had now peaked, and my whole body was shaking as I thought of my two girls upstairs – now wide awake and crying too – and wondered ‘What if?’.


What if we hadn’t invested in good quality smoke alarms, upstairs and down, when we started renovating our house? What if the batteries had been flat, and had failed to alert us to the malfunctioning heater BEFORE the problem became much more serious, and much more dangerous?


It was a horrible way to start the day, but also a wake-up call that scary things can happen at any moment, and you always need to be prepared. 


So please please, if you haven’t already, install smoke alarms in your home, and make sure you check them regularly. 


If you’re worried about the cost, many local fire stations will supply and even install them for free. You can even arrange for someone to visit your home and carry out a free home fire safety check. They’ll point out potential risks and ways to reduce them, and help you develop an escape plan, should the worst happen. 


Check HERE to find your local Fire and Rescue Service. 


No excuses.