Near-disaster

[jay]

Whew. 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 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!

Comments

[hot-turkey.livejournal.com]

Wow. So glad to hear you're all ok. *hugs*

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.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Wow, I'm really glad for you all, and I know that you will reassure James that it's not his fault -- accidents happen. I'm so so so so so so happy no one was hurt.

[spicy-turkey.livejournal.com]

Whoa! I'm sure glad to hear things are ok. Very scary. HUGS.

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

Scary. Glad you're all okay.

[archway.livejournal.com]

Good heavens...!~stunned!~

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~

[trinker.livejournal.com]

WHEW!

[elissaann.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that everyone is okay.

I really like the idea of flame-retardent quilts, and I'm going to look for one.

[deedeebythebay.livejournal.com]

Oh gods. Thank goodness he's ok. That they're all ok. Really, James probably couldn't have known and being 16 doesn't necessarily have the life experience/knowledge to know. Poor guy. Poor all of them. Oh I'm so glad they're ok. *hugs*

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

Yikes. I'm glad everyone is okay.

!!!

[charlottesmtms.livejournal.com]

Poor James ... twas not his fault - he can't predict everything!

I'm just glad that it didn't get WORSE, and that everyone is okay :-)

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

wow. Scary. I'm glad that everyone is okay. I can totally see why David would want to read...and why James wouldn't have known that the smoking thing was *inside* the house rather than outside.

[runeshower.livejournal.com]

:-O Oh my gosh!!! So glad everyone's okay. *trembles*

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

Oh dear gods... I just now saw this. I am so relieved that all turned out ok... *hugs you*

[dandyloo.livejournal.com]

SO glad to hear that this didn't become a disaster. Yay for flame-retardant bedclothes!

[simplykimberly.livejournal.com]

((big hugs)) I'm SO glad everyone is okay! Very scary! ((hugs))

[flavoroflove.livejournal.com]

Holy God. Things like this are every parent's nightmare. Thank God everyone's OK.

[hopeforyou.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad no-one was hurt, and damages were minimal. Phew!

[geekchick]

Eek. I'm glad that everyone is okay.

[weirdodragoncat.livejournal.com]

Oh crap! I'm so glad everyone is ok!

I remember sneaking a flashlight in my bed to read past bedtime too (dragonchild42 seems to have picked up on this habit as well). I suppose kids could have worse habits.

*hugs* to everyone!

[vokzal.livejournal.com]

Yes, lots of hugs to you all!