Six lessons learned from our house fire

When preparing for disasters, it’s hard to know exactly what might make the biggest difference in a future emergency. Fortunately, most disaster preparations can be helpful in a variety of disasters and emergencies. If you prepare for evacuation, such as getting your go bags ready, you’ll be ready to evacuate no matter what the cause, whether that’s due to a wildfire or an earthquake, both, or something else.
Bill and I have been teaching disaster and neighborhood readiness for five years as a way to build connected, caring, and resilient neighborhoods. Our skills were put to the test on January 4th, 2023,  when a power surge ignited an electrical fire in our basement, threatening our lives and property.  We survived and saved our home because of our training and the support of our neighbors. What made the most difference to us during this crisis?

Do you have enough fire extinguishers? Do you know how and when to use them? Read the blog to learn about this and more.

READ MORE

This blog is the second part of a two-part blog series, which includes: 

• Part 1, “Surviving the electrical fire,” describes what happened during our house fire emergency—the signs and symptoms of an electrical fire—and what we did to survive.
• This blog, Part 2, “Six lessons learned from our house fire,” describes what we learned from this experience that might benefit you. We’ll share tips about the skills, knowledge, and preparation that mattered the most during this emergency. 

Why prepare for house fires?

​Being prepared for fires is common sense. In Oregon, fires pose the most frequent disaster risk, according to FEMA's National Risk Index, and house fires are the third biggest killer as far as home accidents are concerned, according to StaySafe.org. House fires claim over 3,000 American lives each year.  Make fire preparedness a high priority. We are thankful that we did.  

Disasters by type based on FEMA's National Risk Index.

---

Six tips for fire preparedness

What made the most difference in our training and preparations? In 2021, we hosted two fire preparedness programs with guest speakers from the Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue. What we learned from these programs made a significant difference in our readiness for fire and evacuation. You can check out these programs in the Resources section of our Evacuation and Assembly page. 
​In addition to the training we received from these programs, here’s what made the most difference to us during our house fire, organized into six tips to help you get prepared. 

Click here to check out the Evacuation & Assembly page for more information.

---

Tip 1: Practice Situational Awareness for personal safety

Situational awareness is a skill that is critical for hazard identification, effective decision making, and accident prevention. It means paying attention and being aware of what’s going on around you, looking for potential hazards, and knowing what to do in case something goes wrong.
It’s natural to panic in a crisis. Situational awareness increases survival by helping you predict how dangerous a situation may be, and it gives you a framework for managing a crisis without panicking.
Situational awareness includes these steps: 

1. Observe what is happening around you and take in all the elements of your environment. 
2. Understand the situation you are experiencing.
3. Predict what is likely to occur next based on what you understand to be happening.
4. Take actions to reduce risk.​

OODA loop developed by John Boyd breaks down steps to improve situational awareness.

Click to read about how we fought the fire in our basement.

Throughout the crisis in our home, we practiced situational awareness. We observed several loud booms from the powerline, flickering lights, the smell burnt plastic, haze and smoke in the basement. Our daughter saw a fireball fly off the wires through the skylight.
We knew something was wrong, but we didn’t fully understand the situation. We investigated potential causes and began acting on our collective understanding of the situation. Actions we took included: unplugging sensitive devices, searching for the source of the acrid smell in the house, testing the electricity at the breaker box, placing our fire extinguishers in easily accessible locations, calling PGE for help, calling 911 when we noticed smoke in the basement, organizing our go bags and pets, and evacuating.
When we found the source of the fire, we called 911 again and worked as a team to subdue the fire until fire fighters arrived. We knew what to do, and we didn’t panic.  The fire extinguishers were easily accessible because we’d prepared for it earlier during the crisis. We had already safely evacuated our pets to a neighbors house.
If we hadn’t practiced situational awareness—being present to the danger and on alert, anticipating and taking steps to mitigate hazards—we might have lost our home or our lives. ​

---

Tip 2: Plan and practice your escape route
​As part of our preparedness activities over the last few years, Bill had created a fire escape map of our house. We discussed the map and assessed our risks during a fire scenario. This led us to check and update our smoke alarms, add in CO detectors, and purchase additional fire extinguishers. We also purchased fire escape ladders for the upstairs bedrooms to create a second escape route for each room.

Click image to download a planning tool developed by Underwriters Laboratories, 2022. Also available on CloseYourDoor.org.

Fire experts recommend having a fire escape plan, a map of your home showing all doors and windows. It’s important to know at least two ways out of every room, and to discuss the plan with everyone living in the home. The plan should  include an outside meeting place, like a tree, light pole or mailbox, which is a safe distance from your home. (Click the image to download safety tips on how to create an escape plan.)
Consider escape route planning as part of your situational awareness practice, everywhere you go—on airplanes, in hotels, at the movie theater, and so on. Always be aware of your escape routes, so there is no confusion as to how to exit when it is time to go. Visualize how you will escape if visibility is low, like in a fire with heavy smoke. ​

---

Tip 3: Install and maintain your smoke and CO detectors

Smoke alarms and CO detectors are a key part of a home fire escape plan. Roughly 3 out of 5 fire deaths happen in homes with no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms.
A smoldering electrical fire in the wall, like the one we experienced, may not initially trigger the smoke alarm, which makes these kinds of fires particularly dangerous. Fortunately, we were awake and we could smell the stench of burnt plastic and wire. We kept looking for the source, even after the fire department couldn’t find it with their thermal imaging camera. While our smoke detector did not initially go off, our CO detector did.
Where to put smoke alarms? Install smoke alarms in every bedroom, outside each sleeping area, and on every level of the home, including the basement. It’s best to install interconnected smoke alarms, because when one alarm sounds, they all sound throughout the house. Test smoke alarms regularly by pressing the test button. Replace all smoke alarms when they are 10 years old. Check out this smoke alarm tip sheet for more information. ​

Smoke and CO detectors provide early warning of danger.

Click here to download "Smoke Alarms at Home," safety tips from the National Fire Protection Association.

---

Tip 4: Know how to use and maintain your fire extinguishers

​Fire extinguishers made a huge difference in fighting the electrical fire in our house because the fire was small when we found it. We knew how and when to use our fire extinguishers, and we maintained them by shaking them every six months. 
A portable fire extinguisher can save lives and property by putting out a small fire or containing it until the fire department arrives. However, fire extinguishers have limitations because fire grows and spreads so rapidly. Your highest priority is to get out safely.
How many fire extinguishers?
We put fire extinguishers near the door in every room of the house, two in the garage and kitchen, and one in the living room near the fireplace. If your budget is tight, place fire extinguishers in the most likely areas for fire, like the kitchen. 

Click to download the brochure to learn about choosing and using a fire extinguisher by Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue.

Click to expand this graphic about fire extinguisher classifications

What type of fire extinguisher?
Buy and use fire extinguishers that are appropriate for the type of fire that may occur in the room where you store the extinguisher. Fire extinguishers are color-coded and classified as to what types of small fires they can put out. Click here to learn more about fire extinguisher color codes, and click here for a detailed discussion of fire types. 
How to use a fire extinguisher? 
Check out the "P.A.S.S. the Fire Extinguisher!" brochure to learn about choosing and using a portable fire extinguisher. Also, watch the 3 minute training video, "How to Use a Portable Extinguisher." ​

---

Tip 5: Close the doors to contain a fire

During one of our fire safety programs, we learned that during a house fire, a closed door can save your life. A closed door provides a barrier and reduces oxygen to the fire, slowing down the spread of fire and deadly smoke. This gives you more time to escape. They had advised us to always sleep with the bedroom doors closed, “Close before your Dose!”
When fire fighters left our house without finding the source of the smoke, out of an abundance of caution, I closed the basement door. We were lucky to have found the smoldering fire in the outlet before it spread rapidly through the house. 

We closed the door as a precaution; it helped to contain the smoke from a fire smoldering in the outlet.

According to safety certification company UL, on average people only have three minutes to escape a house fire today, as compared to 17 minutes for similar fires 40 years ago. The use of synthetic materials has been shown to accelerate the spread of fires. See the dramatic difference a door can make in this 5-minute video, developed by the Fire Safety Research Institute and Underwriters Laboratories. Check out other videos and materials at www.closeyourdoor.org. 

---

Tip 6: Set up a Neighborhood Ready! meeting today

​Our Neighborhood Preparedness work has introduced us to many neighbors who have become friends. Our neighbors and friends made a difference not only during the emergency, but in our recovery. One of our neighbors, the Welgans, took care of our pets, providing a safe place for them to stay while we dealt with the fire and recovery. Another neighbor, Mark Tilson, offered to let us stay at his house for several weeks, as he was leaving on a vacation. Another neighbor and good friend, Melinda Beaumont, helped us sort through the food in our dead refrigerators and freezer. We photographed our losses and stored what we could keep in the empty spaces of a neighbors’ refrigerator and freezer.
We are forever grateful for the kindness of our neighbors. We had more offers of help than we needed.
Consider the possibility of setting up a Neighborhood Ready! meeting on your block. It’ll change your life for the better and may even save your life and property.
Contact us or check out our Neighborhood Ready! page for more information.  

Contact Us

Click to learn more about Neighborhood Ready

Melinda Beaumont (right) helped with our house fire cleanup. She is the Neighborhood Ready! coordinator for Cedar Hills.

---

Author

Karen Ronning-Hall, Disaster Preparedness Evangelist, living in beautiful Portland, Oregon, with hubby Bill, daughter Geneva, Bean dog, Thumper kitty, and Terry the turtle.