So I was sleeping in late today and I woke up smelling something funny. When I wake up my vision seems hazy, so it takes a few moments to realize that my entire family room was engulfed in smoke (I was sleeping on the couch, don't ask). I run into my storage room and the second I open storage room door the acrid black smoke is filled half way in the entire room, you had to crawl to go beneath it it was so thick. But out of fear and adrenaline I just run in immediately, and almost instantly the oxygen goes out my lungs and fear takes over me. I run to the back where we have a storage room bedroom that we used to let guests stay in, and I unthinkingly try to open the knob and it burnt my hand viciously. I managed to open it the rest of the way with my elbow, and through the near total blackout I see a fire on my curtain and the floor carpet. It is clearly at the turning point, on the cusp of getting beyond any of my control.
I run out and tell my fiancee who was sleeping already (I should have woke her up the second I saw the smoke, right? Wasn't thinking) to run out of the house immediately and call the Fire Department. The upstairs wasn't as filled with smoke yet, so breathing was OK but it was starting to get to the phase where it was filling up too. But I don't want my house to burn down while waiting for Fire Department, so I grab a bowl and fill it with water and rush back into the room in flames and toss it on the curtains. That took out some of it, but due to the fire going out a bit even more smoke billowed from what I had put out and made it even more difficult to breathe.
So I ran back outside into the snow and I'm on the floor hacking up black phlegm. After 30 seconds or so, I make another run upstairs to fill a bowl with water and again rush into the room and toss it on the fire by the window. My thinking was i could break/open the window from outside and then fight the fire with my water hose which was close by that downstairs window. So I put that out and use gloves to open up the window (which is cracked and half melted so not easy at this point) but we do get it out and I start to put out the carpet fire with the hose. Then the smoke is clearing a bit on that side and I notice there is fire all on the old mattress and blanket that is pretty seriously deep. So I spray that for a while, and my next door neighbor comes through with a fire extinguisher and we use that. At this point it's basically cinders from what I can tell, but the fire guy arrives and say the wall is warm so they had to check with thermal cameras to see if there might be fire in the walls or something.
Anyway after that they started investigating and they questioned me for a while about it, the Fire Chief guy kept questioning me as if there was some sinister reason the house caught on fire. I guess there was an old liquid in the room they thought could have been something illegal, but it turned out to be just like a really old moldy Hawaiian Punch bottle that someone hid under the one bed. It was gross and smelled gross.
Anyway, long story short is we finally got to put the fire out, but there was a few lessons I learned definitively.
1. It is unbelievable how quickly things can get out of control in a fire. Like, you really can't be a hero after a point... if the fire was even slightly worse, I doubt I would have been even able to make it to that back room without fainting. The smoke was just suffocating and debilitating. Second time I ran into the room I tried to cover my face with a sweatshirt, but that only helped ever so slightly. It was insane and genuinely terrifying. Future self must remember not take such risks.
2. Like they teach you in elementary school, don't just grab onto door knobs willy-nilly. 'Cause even though the fire didn't seem very close to my door when I opened the room, the door knob was still hot as fuck and gave me pretty severe burns on my hand.
3. Smoke smell gets fucking everywhere and is like impossible to get out. I've been cleaning walls, steam vac carpet, put all my clothes into the wash (still got many loads to go) and stuff is still coming out smelling like smoke. Probably going to have to get rid of my couches and carpets maybe curtains altogether.
That's my house layout, tomorrow I'll take some photos of my burnt out room so you guys can have a laugh at that.
My heart is still beating a bit fast after this event, and I am so relieved my entire house did not burn down, but I tell you what... I respect fire safety advice 100000x more than I already did, and I already thought I had healthy respect for that! I'll be buying some fire extinguishers, getting new fire detectors (heh, sort of... disconnected them in my house 'cause they were making an annoying beeping sound and I was too lazy to properly replace them... *cough* SHUT UP I LEARNED MY LESSON NOW) and definitely not playing hard and fast with my life in the next event like this.
I cannot describe enough just how terrifying that was to me. I mean clearly the fire wasn't too insane because I was able to save the house using my own hose mostly, but it felt completely out of control... and now it does not surprise me in the least when people die or whatever. The smoke will suffocate you quick as fuck if you don't take quick action. I guess I never realized how quick that process can take place.
I run out and tell my fiancee who was sleeping already (I should have woke her up the second I saw the smoke, right? Wasn't thinking) to run out of the house immediately and call the Fire Department. The upstairs wasn't as filled with smoke yet, so breathing was OK but it was starting to get to the phase where it was filling up too. But I don't want my house to burn down while waiting for Fire Department, so I grab a bowl and fill it with water and rush back into the room in flames and toss it on the curtains. That took out some of it, but due to the fire going out a bit even more smoke billowed from what I had put out and made it even more difficult to breathe.
So I ran back outside into the snow and I'm on the floor hacking up black phlegm. After 30 seconds or so, I make another run upstairs to fill a bowl with water and again rush into the room and toss it on the fire by the window. My thinking was i could break/open the window from outside and then fight the fire with my water hose which was close by that downstairs window. So I put that out and use gloves to open up the window (which is cracked and half melted so not easy at this point) but we do get it out and I start to put out the carpet fire with the hose. Then the smoke is clearing a bit on that side and I notice there is fire all on the old mattress and blanket that is pretty seriously deep. So I spray that for a while, and my next door neighbor comes through with a fire extinguisher and we use that. At this point it's basically cinders from what I can tell, but the fire guy arrives and say the wall is warm so they had to check with thermal cameras to see if there might be fire in the walls or something.
Anyway after that they started investigating and they questioned me for a while about it, the Fire Chief guy kept questioning me as if there was some sinister reason the house caught on fire. I guess there was an old liquid in the room they thought could have been something illegal, but it turned out to be just like a really old moldy Hawaiian Punch bottle that someone hid under the one bed. It was gross and smelled gross.
Anyway, long story short is we finally got to put the fire out, but there was a few lessons I learned definitively.
1. It is unbelievable how quickly things can get out of control in a fire. Like, you really can't be a hero after a point... if the fire was even slightly worse, I doubt I would have been even able to make it to that back room without fainting. The smoke was just suffocating and debilitating. Second time I ran into the room I tried to cover my face with a sweatshirt, but that only helped ever so slightly. It was insane and genuinely terrifying. Future self must remember not take such risks.
2. Like they teach you in elementary school, don't just grab onto door knobs willy-nilly. 'Cause even though the fire didn't seem very close to my door when I opened the room, the door knob was still hot as fuck and gave me pretty severe burns on my hand.
3. Smoke smell gets fucking everywhere and is like impossible to get out. I've been cleaning walls, steam vac carpet, put all my clothes into the wash (still got many loads to go) and stuff is still coming out smelling like smoke. Probably going to have to get rid of my couches and carpets maybe curtains altogether.
That's my house layout, tomorrow I'll take some photos of my burnt out room so you guys can have a laugh at that.
My heart is still beating a bit fast after this event, and I am so relieved my entire house did not burn down, but I tell you what... I respect fire safety advice 100000x more than I already did, and I already thought I had healthy respect for that! I'll be buying some fire extinguishers, getting new fire detectors (heh, sort of... disconnected them in my house 'cause they were making an annoying beeping sound and I was too lazy to properly replace them... *cough* SHUT UP I LEARNED MY LESSON NOW) and definitely not playing hard and fast with my life in the next event like this.
I cannot describe enough just how terrifying that was to me. I mean clearly the fire wasn't too insane because I was able to save the house using my own hose mostly, but it felt completely out of control... and now it does not surprise me in the least when people die or whatever. The smoke will suffocate you quick as fuck if you don't take quick action. I guess I never realized how quick that process can take place.
