A Fire Safety Reminder

Some of you have talked to us and some of you may have heard through the grapevine, but I just wanted to write a reminder about a really scary accident we were involved in this past Friday. It’s long, but important, so please just take a few minutes to read when you have time.

Oliver, Norah and I were at my sister's house in Omaha on Friday night. We put Norah to bed and were sitting out on the back deck when a liquid/oil candle thing like these:

exploded while it was being refilled.  The lit fuel got all over my sister, my youngest niece, Holly, and me. There was fire everywhere and it was as if someone had firebombed the deck. We immediately dropped to the ground and began to roll to put the flames out but because the fuel was oily and on our skin, it continued to burn. My middle niece, Katrina, grabbed the fire extinguisher within seconds, thank God, and we got everything put out. My oldest niece, Nicola, was able to call 911 right away. There was another family with us there, and the mom of that family is a nurse, so we had immediate medical attention before the paramedics could even arrive. The picture attached is of the chair that the three of us were sitting on.

The three of us were taken by ambulance to the ER at University of Nebraska - Omaha with serious burns. Kimberley and I were released that night but Holly spent a night in the hospital.  As bad as everything is, we have a lot to be thankful for:  nobody's face or head or neck got burned. No one had any smoke inhalation. Obviously, I am so unbelievably thankful that Norah was safely tucked away in bed when it all happened and slept right thought it. I can’t even let me mind wander in the direction of “what if?”

All that said, there are a few really important things we learned from this:

First of all, obviously, if you have anything like these candles, PLEASE throw them away. I wouldn’t wish what happened to us on anyone.

Second, know where your fire extinguishers are. Are they old? Fire extinguishers do have an expiration date. Do you know how to use one? Do your kids (if they’re old enough) know where they are? If you’ve got a fire pit or anything like that on your deck, always have a hose nearby and connected to the faucet. If you haven’t practiced “stop-drop-and-roll” since grade school, give it a test run.

Third, let’s all get in a better habit of putting our cordless phone on the charger. Fortunately, Nicola spotted one right away and used it to call 911, but we all know that feeling of the phone ringing and thinking “Where the heck is the phone??”

We’re all in pain but we’re recovering day by day. My mom is here to help with Norah and while I can’t walk well now, I’m hoping that soon Norah and I will be able to practice our walking together! Please feel free to forward this note along to anyone you know who might need a little fire safety reminder or who owns liquid fueled lanterns like these. Like I said, anything that can be done to prevent something like this from ever happening again is worth it.