Near-disaster
Nov. 26th, 2006 11:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jayWhew. That was *this* close to a very serious, life-threatening problem....
16-year-old James was babysitting his brothers, who had gone to bed at the time thatpatgreene and I had gone out for Thai food for dinner (9pm), leaving James up. Afterward we swung by the Krispy Kreme drive-through, drove around a bit and returned home around 11pm. And... I smelled smoke. In the hallway... stronger at one end than another, which together with the kind of smell (more like burning paper, than wood) caused me to think it wasn't a neighbor's fireplace.
The nursery door... was closed.
I went in, there was much more smoke, looked up and saw yellow coming from David's upper bunk, leapt across, I struggled to grab the quilt (which I thought was on fire )and pull it and David down and apart.
It was smoldering, but not aflame. A light -- a wall sconce -- had fallen down off of the wall and on to his blankets, and the heat of the bulb had burned/melted through two charred holes eight inches across. What I'd thought were flames was the light from the bulb. I'm thankful for the 1970s laws that mandated flame-retardant materials and treatments for children's bedding -- the charred quilt was a old toddler-era Peter Rabbit cover that we hadn't gotten around to replacing. Had it burst into flames, David would at the least have been badly burned, and the whole house might have gone up (we have mahogany wood panelling on the walls, not plaster).
James was aghast and ashamed, blaming himself... he'd blithely assumed a neighbor's wood-burning fireplace was the cause, and hadn't looked into his brothers' bedroom. I'm glad that Pat and I weren't out longer on our date!
16-year-old James was babysitting his brothers, who had gone to bed at the time that
patgreene and I had gone out for Thai food for dinner (9pm), leaving James up. Afterward we swung by the Krispy Kreme drive-through, drove around a bit and returned home around 11pm. And... I smelled smoke. In the hallway... stronger at one end than another, which together with the kind of smell (more like burning paper, than wood) caused me to think it wasn't a neighbor's fireplace. The nursery door... was closed.
I went in, there was much more smoke, looked up and saw yellow coming from David's upper bunk, leapt across, I struggled to grab the quilt (which I thought was on fire )and pull it and David down and apart.
It was smoldering, but not aflame. A light -- a wall sconce -- had fallen down off of the wall and on to his blankets, and the heat of the bulb had burned/melted through two charred holes eight inches across. What I'd thought were flames was the light from the bulb. I'm thankful for the 1970s laws that mandated flame-retardant materials and treatments for children's bedding -- the charred quilt was a old toddler-era Peter Rabbit cover that we hadn't gotten around to replacing. Had it burst into flames, David would at the least have been badly burned, and the whole house might have gone up (we have mahogany wood panelling on the walls, not plaster).
James was aghast and ashamed, blaming himself... he'd blithely assumed a neighbor's wood-burning fireplace was the cause, and hadn't looked into his brothers' bedroom. I'm glad that Pat and I weren't out longer on our date!
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Date: 2006-11-27 08:06 am (UTC)When I first moved to San Francisco in 1974, the house I lived in almost caught on fire because the guy downstairs fell asleep with a space heater much too close to a foam mattress. We smelled smoke, broke in, put out the mattress, and got him out of the toxic cloud that was filling the room, but it was a near thing. Scary.
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Date: 2006-11-27 08:27 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2006-11-27 08:58 am (UTC)(Though I could probably list you dozens of other errors in judgment that I perpetrated on myself and those around me when I was that age. Oy. It's a wonder I lived this long.)
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Date: 2006-11-27 05:57 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2006-11-27 01:56 pm (UTC)I'm thankful for the 1970s laws that mandated flame-retardant materials and treatments for children's bedding -- the charred quilt was a old toddler-era Peter Rabbit cover that we hadn't gotten around to replacing.
See, even procrastination can be a very good thing...~S~
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Date: 2006-11-27 06:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-27 02:03 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2006-11-27 02:06 pm (UTC)I really like the idea of flame-retardent quilts, and I'm going to look for one.
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Date: 2006-11-27 06:06 pm (UTC)OTOH, it should be a requirement in smokers' households...
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Date: 2006-11-27 07:26 pm (UTC)That, and time.
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Date: 2006-11-27 07:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-27 09:35 pm (UTC)I am very glad to read that no one was hurt and you were able to rescue the situation in time!!
*hugs*
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Date: 2006-11-27 03:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-27 06:09 pm (UTC)!!!
Date: 2006-11-27 03:49 pm (UTC)I'm just glad that it didn't get WORSE, and that everyone is okay :-)
Re: !!!
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Date: 2006-11-28 05:22 pm (UTC)I remember sneaking a flashlight in my bed to read past bedtime too (
*hugs* to everyone!
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Date: 2006-11-28 07:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-29 12:59 am (UTC)