Our house burnt down

[baddayattheoffice]

What would you pick up as you left your burning home?

Most people will never face the reality of their home burning down. We never expected to go through it, but if it can happen to us it could happen to anyone.

AMA.

I had to evacuate in 2016, along with 80,000 others, for a wildfire. 2,000 homes were destroyed. Luckily ours wasn’t one of them.

Useful tips: save copies of all important documents to the cloud and take a video of each room. I have heard too many sad tales about the hard work and stress to create lists of possessions and discoveries that the limit on contents insurance was nowhere near enough.

I'd grab my Cat and a Peter rabbit teddy that has one of my Baby's remains inside it. Oh and a dressing gown if it happened during the night otherwise I'd be stood out with nothing on. I'm lucky that I have a conservatory attached to my bedroom. Bedroom door into the hall is always closed after recommendations from the fire brigade who installed my fire alarm due to not having a door between my hall and kitchen and the Cat always sleep either on my bed with me or on his chair in the conservatory. The inside door from the bedroom into the conservatory is always opened as the Cats litter tray is in there and the patio door outside always has the keys inside it. My front door keys are always hung up next to the door (but away from burglars) for the exact same reason as are my car keys. My door is a Yale lock and only ever locked by a safety bolt anyway and can be opened without the keys. I'd be in a bit more trouble if I was in the living room though as my kitchen is between the living room and hallway so smashing the window would be my only choice there. When I was with my STBXH we did have a small fire in the kitchen. I'd put some toast in the toaster and must've nodded off. Toaster was on the lowest setting but it had a fault on it and never popped up again. Instead it continued cooking and cooking the toast until eventually it set on fire. Thankfully the smoke alarm woke me up although I just assumed I'd have a bit of burnt toast. Went in the kitchen to see flames dancing out the toaster and licking up the wall and I've no idea why I did it or what possessed me to even do it but I stood there literally trying to blow them out like candles on a birthday cake it did eventually go out although the fire brigade did still come and check everything was ok. Thankfully it was rather windy that night so we were able to disperse the smoke just by having the windows and doors wide open for a few hours. We did all wake up with sore throats the next day and the Moggy had a bit of a cough but we were warned that would probably happen. It was only by chance though that I had the cat carrier to hand so was able to quickly grab and stuff a bemused Cat inside it ready to grab him and run if needed. Although if necessary I'd have let him straight out of the door or window instead. The Moggy was more peeved that A he'd been shoved in his carry case without his usual entice him into it treats and B that he wasn't allowed out to be fussed over by the Firemen

Passports and important documents are the most important things to save (after people and pets)

As a single parent of 3 DC, 2 whom are still in infants, plus a big dog, two cats, a group of fish and 2 axolotls I find myself worrying about this often. I do things to try and prevent it and all things got their place that I may need in different situations like keys for doors and windows, dressing gowns, animals got certain rooms at night so I know where they are, bag with important documents and have a plan in my head for each scenario but never get round to an actual fire practice with the DC but after this thread I will differently be doing one tomorrow and timing it and will make it more of a priority from now on. Sorry to anyone who has been through anything like this.

I am so so sorry to hear that happened to you and glad that you are physically all right. My flat is quite disorganised so I'd just pick up whatever seemed sensible within about 20 seconds if it was safe to do so for example the laptops which are easy to find. My bank cards and keys and driving licence are usually in a bowl quite near the door so I'd try to grab those and maybe a card from a relative or photo if it was to hand. I wouldn't faff around though. The main thing is to get out in my opinion. Things are just things.

This has reminded me that I planned to get a fireproof filing box with a handle and to actually put some things in it. Must do that now I have remembered. Although some of my important documents data etc live in a safety deposit connected to my bank.

I’m so so sorry . That’s awful .
I had a fire a few years ago, started in the Kitchen and I dragged my then 4 year old outside followed by trying to get the cats ( one escaped and hid inside but ended up being ok ) . On the way out I remember grabbing my phone and credit card .
I since keep documents pics and spare keys in a fireproof safe close to the door

No, not around the victims.

Police shouldn't do it and nor should any other emergency service. Keep it for when they're not around.

I think it is important to tell our children repeatedly that if there is a fire 8or an earthquake) not to try to save anyone, only themselves.

I'm also a bit concerned about all the people wanting to save their cats. I love cats but they tend to run away when something frightening is happening and there is very little time to save yourself. I live in an earthquake zone so I always open the windows for the cats when there is an earthquake. I would try to do something similar for cats if there is a fire.

But it would be good if everyone had the occasional fire drill with their children.

What a terrible thing to happen.

I know of someone whose house burnt down to the ground.
Their toaster was plugged in and it somehow went on fire overnight, while they all were asleep.
They all got out without injury.
Everything was totally destroyed though. :(

This actually happened to me, we were lucky to get out with everyone safe. We didn't bring anything, it was all too fast.

This thread is terrifying. A house fire is just my worst nightmare.

I’m so sorry for everyone this happened to.

It could really happen to any of us couldn’t it?

I’ve just been round the house and switched off as many appliances as possible and shut as many doors as possible. Someone mentioned a charging battery going off - my DH was charging a big one in the kitchen.

We used to laugh as teens at a friends parent who had escape ladders on the inside of a window but as a parent now I totally get it! I will remember the duvet cover escape for kids - mine are probably too big but would still be preferable to them jumping.

One of the main reasons this scares me is because my house is messy therefore in a fire situation it wouldn’t be a straightforward escape route or rescue route for the fire brigade. I think that more than anything else actually will give me a kick up the bum to get it sorted out.

I hope you’re as ok as can be OP. My heart really hurts for you. It’s so easy and mostly very true to say everything is replaceable but life, but there are precious things that aren’t replaceable, boxes of memories and I have my late mother’s shirt which could never be replaced. Huge hug, I wish I could help you.

Our house didn't burn down but we did have significant smoke/fire damage in the hall, front room, stairs and start of the landing when a boy of 14 poured petrol through our letterbox after an argument with my brother (also 14). I had nightmares for years of the flames crawling up the stairs like a demon. We had to stay with family at the other end of the country while it was being investigated and repaired. I went past the house a few years ago. You can still see the damage above the door frame as the bricks cracked and window slightly warped in the intense heat.

Get out straight away. Don't bother with any possessions. There isn't time. Get the people out. It's smoke that's the killer and it spreads unbelievably quickly.
In the fire that I experienced as a young adult in the family home the dog went straight to the door and was waiting for us as we rushed down the stairs. We didn't see the cat and certainly didn't have time to look for her but she made it out safely and came back the next day.

I was in a hotel room in February with the kids when the fire alarm went off. We had just come back from breakfast. It was a false alarm, but we didn't know that.

I was so angry with myself afterwards because the only thing I grabbed was my bloody face mask, which we still had to wear then (Belgium) and I'd spent the holiday complaining about.

It was a wake up call to the fact that I'd not be one of those people who gathered important things in a house fire.

Very sorry to OP and everybody else for whom this isn't a hypothetical situation.

This happened to my elderly mum a while back. It spread so quickly she got out with her life, what she was wearing and her handbag. Fire service arrived within 6 minutes but everything was lost. They were amazing by the way. My advice - never think it can’t happen to you.

So so sorry. This happened to my cousin about five years ago, but he ran back in and saved his two dogs and tarantula, but he couldn't get his cat. They had nothing and the pictures were devastating! This was also a small cottage.

Oh that’s exactly what happened to my sister and her family! Brand new house, brand new baby, lost everything. I mean, insurance covered a lot but not all. It changed them, they are not easily phased anymore and not attached to possessions. It was a huge deal at the time, we were all so upset for them and just so grateful they all got out. I really feel for you xx

And I hate to add it, but most folks I know who had fire proof boxes and safes found out that they weren’t.

We have a backup of all our pc stuff,records and important things to a ucb.one is kept here one at my uncle's out of our house.ready if needed.

Not just your home, I used to stay in hotels a lot with two young children (husband travelled for a bank in the Far East) first thing we'd do was check the fire exits, (some would be chained closed) then we'd try escaping with the girls at night. Been in two minor hotel fires. Also re house keys, when I worked for the council I'd be amazed at the number of doors I knock at and there'd be "just wait a minute I have to get the keys" I alwasy gave them a fire safety talk when they eventually opened the door. I had one lady come to the window as her husband took the only set of house keys out with him every day!!

I just ordered a box but wondering if I should cancel order

Read all the reviews and most don’t seem fireproof, this looked ok but maybe not

a friend has a grab bag, under her bed, for this sort of occasion.

I’m sorry to everyone this has happened to.

Our windows don’t open wide enough for anyone to be able to get out of them which is a worry; down the stairs and out of the front door would be our only way out.