Friday, January 27, at 5:50 am the alarm went off to get up
for the day. Just before hitting the
snooze button, I noticed what appeared to be a light on and some noise coming
from the kitchen. I thought it was
odd that
Pierre
was up so early, but went back to sleep. Sometime
between 6:05 and 6:10 the alarm was going off again and I got up because I had
to go to the bathroom. The light
coming through the door didn’t look right.
I told Roland “Honey, that looks like a fire, go check.”
He did and announced that it was a fire and to get out NOW.
What happened next is still a blur and I’m working on getting it
straight in my head, but basically when I got out of the house I was still under
the impression that the fire was contained to one room and that the fire
department would get there and put it out and life would go on. Working on this
assumption, I went outside where Roland was looking for someone with a cell
phone because both of ours were still in the house.
When the first two passers by didn’t have a phone, I took off my shirt
and tried to punch through the window to unlock the door.
I should have used a rock or something…
I still hadn’t walked too far from the house yet.
When I did go out to the end of the driveway to see what the onlookers
were staring at, I saw the flames rising above the roof.
At this point I knew it was Bad and ran back in for the animals.
I walked into a wall of smoke which wouldn’t allow me to get the snakes
out (I couldn’t stand long enough to get them out of their tanks, plus I
figured they were already asphyxiated since one short breath at their level
nearly knocked me out. I went back
out for fresh air and then back in on my hands and knees to crawl around to look
for the cat. I couldn’t find her
because it was too dark, so I went out to get a flashlight, but the officer who
had arrived at the scene wouldn’t give me a flashlight to go back in.
While I was performing rescue maneuvers, Roland had kicked in the door and
grabbed his cell phone and truck keys, called 911 and moved his truck out of the
driveway.
From this point all we could do was wait and watch.
Finally, the fire in the bedroom was out enough and the firemen agreed to
haul the snake cages out. Much to
the surprise of everyone, they were alive and crawling around!
Then I had them kick open the other set of doors to look for the cat.
When she wasn’t in one of her usual hiding places, I tried to get them
to go look under the bed, but there was still fire in the attic, so they
couldn’t do that. When it was
finally safe, one of the firemen went in and found the cat under the bed.
They let me in to get her out and I grabbed a cat carrier and hauled her
out. At this point, the rest of the
stuff didn’t matter. Everyone got
out with no injuries.
Well, not quite. Rowan (my ball python) ended up with a severe bronchial
infection from smoke inhalation and a burn on his nose where plastic from his
cage dripped down, but he’s doing fine now and he’s got just a little scar
on his nose.
Fortunately, my insurance agent didn’t let me cancel my renter’s
policy when I moved in with Roland, so my stuff is covered under my own
insurance policy. My agent showed up
within an hour of my calling and handed me a check for $2000. A friend showed up
to drive me around (my truck keys were in the house and I was in no shape to
drive). We went to get another cell
phone, a hotel room and more truck keys, then to my office for office keys, my
passport, checks to the bank for cash and I was pretty functional.
Roland had grabbed his cell phone, truck keys and his wallet happened to
be in the jeans he’d put on to run out of the house.
On a humorous note, Ernie, my full skeleton, had been in the living room
and after the fire was a heap (see the pics)
The firemen kept coming up to Roland asking if he was sure there was no
one else in the house.
Since the fire, we’ve been staying at the Larkspur Landing Hotel in
Campbell
with Teal. The snakes stayed in
intensive care with the vet for the weekend and are now staying with Mom until
we get a house. Roland and Pierre
signed a lease for a house to rent in
Saratoga
and we should be in there on March 1.
Some things we’ve learned (or learn from us):
Smoke Detectors – you can’t have enough.
Put them in the hallways and the bedrooms.
Ours was in an acceptable location, but didn’t go off until it was too
late. CO detectors may have caught
the fire earlier, but I’m not sure.
Insurance – get some. I
can’t recommend State Farm highly enough for their response so far.
Get replacement insurance. If
you are not on the deed to the house you are living in, get renter’s
insurance. Make a list of what you have and keep it somewhere else.
Review your policy every year – this is where having a great agent
comes in. If you can’t afford to
replace everything you own, then you can afford insurance.
It’s cheap. Get a quote.
ID and other important papers – keep copies somewhere else.
In this day when you don’t exist without photo ID, get a passport and
keep it somewhere safe – fireproof safe, safe deposit box, etc.
Develop personal relationships with the people you do business with.
If I didn’t have ID, it would have been a lot easier to cash a check at
Heritage where I’m in there twice a week and they know me than it would have
been at BofA or Wells Fargo where they don’t care who you are.
On the cause:
The fire investigators are saying that it was a surge
protector that failed. Instead of switching off, it melted and
smoldered. We only had the microwave and the coffee maker plugged in and
neither was turned on. The microwave was only drawing current to run the
clock. In fact the only appliances we had plugged in were the microwave,
the coffee maker, the dishwasher, the oven and the refrigerator. We use
something, unplug it and put it away - even the coffee grinder. So, no
matter how prepared for prevention you are... shit happens so be prepared
in case it does.
updated 2/21/2006