Preventing & Handling a Home Emergency

From: "Leanna Ampola"

Hi polar bears, this just happened to a friend of mine. I think the story and take-away info is important enough to share with everyone...

Leanna

Some excitement here - my dishwater motor caught fire yesterday while I(fortunately) was in the kitchen. It was impressive. Flames flared out of it (while it was running). Telephone didn't work to call 911 (electrical cut off). I couldn't find my cell phone.

I have the extinguishers all over the house and outside (next to the grill), but since they weren't visible, and I was panicked, I couldn't remember where they were. So at that point I was more concerned about getting the kids, shutting off the electrical board, shutting all internal the doors, and finding a phone to dial 911.

I evacuated the house (all the neighborhood kids were over), fortunately my neighbor heard my calls (okay they were probably screams) for assistance and saw smoke and came over with a fire extinguisher.

After the fire was put out I noticed/remembered that there were 2 extinguisher within 5 feet. I'm very obsessive so I'm the kind of person that checks expiration dates and replaces them regularly. So my next step is to find a better place for them. Despite the fact they are ugly, I intend to attach an extinguisher to the counter where it is visible to everyone (including BABYSITTERS and forgetful grandparents).

The neighbor who brought the first extinguisher over found it didn't work because it was expired! This cost precious time and resulted in more loss. The next neighbor that came did have a working one. This was what kept the fire from spiraling out of control.

The kitchen is less than 5 years old. The appliance that fried was a Bosch dishwasher.

Moral of the story:
- don't leave appliances on when you are sleeping or leave the house!
- Keep a fire extinguisher handy and in view and make sure it has NOT expired (of course I have several but I couldn't remember where they were in my panicked state counting the kids to ensure everyone was out)