Nothing like a brush w/ death to put you on the straight & narrow

[Douglas Skipworth]

What is your fire plan for your rental house and your residence? You better have one.

Tonight at 9:00, the motor in the clothes dryer at my personal residence in Memphis caught on fire.

The kids and I were just finishing up our weekly laundry chores when we heard a loud noise and smelled smoke coming from the laundry room.

I hopped up from my computer and rushed to empty the dryer of its contents (bed sheets). As I pulled the sheets out of the dryer, I saw dark smoke coming out of the lent filter. Approximately 60 seconds later, flames were billowing out of the bottom of the dryer.

Amazingly, my 8-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter rushed to the fire extinguisher and instructed me to grab it and empty it on the fire. 

After three attempts over three minutes, I could not extinguish the flames. At that point, my 13-year-old daughter called 911.

We immediately vacated the house.

The first thing we did was huddle together and thank God for safely getting us out of the house. Then we prayed that He would protect our home and our belongings.

As we stood waiting for the fire department we imagined the worst and started playing the "what if" game.

What if the house burns to the ground?

What if we had not heard the motor burn up and acted immediately?

What if we had not had a fire extinguisher or called 911?

What if the kids did not know all of the fire safety rules?

What if we had been asleep or away from home with the dryer running?

What if we didn't have the right insurance coverage?

What if the fire department doesn't respond quickly?

As our minds raced and hearts pounded for what seemed like a lifetime, we finally heard the sirens of the four Memphis Fire Department trucks that sped to the scene in less than five minutes.

Our prayers were answered as they cleared the smoke from the house and removed the extremely charred dryer in less than 15 minutes! 

Remarkably, the fire burned for over 20 minutes in the dryer without causing fire damage to any of contents of the laundry room or the rest of the house (and only minimal smoke damage). Praise God!

All that said, we were all terribly shaken by the experience.

At the same time, we were very glad we had a plan.

Thankfully, at no point during the incident were any of our lives truly in danger. However, if only a couple of variables had changed we really might have been in jeopardy for our lives.

The kids and I are walking away from this evening grateful (luckily, my wife was out with her sister for the evening). 

However, we are also walking away with a renewed since of safety and precaution. I pray that you would, too.

-Have a fire plan

-Have working smoke detectors and fire extinguishers

-Teach your children and your tenants what to do in case of a fire

-Have proper insurance

-Don't run your clothes dryer unsupervised

-Thank a fireman

[Marcia Maynard]

Thanks for sharing this. I'm glad you and your family are safe. And ditto about thanking fire fighters!

Reminds me of some sage advice an old timer appliance repairman gave me years ago.... He said, "Never trust an appliance! Always be around when one is running. If I didn't have to, I wouldn't even leave the refrigerator running on it's own!"

One time when I was working in my home office, I sensed an electrical burning smell. I looked up and saw smoke coming from the overhead florescent light. The ballast had started to burn. I turned off the light from the wall switch and called the fire department. It had completely melted by the time they arrived and they said it could have caused a house fire. They've seen it before. That's when I learned you can't trust the old style ballasts and I'm very careful not to install those kinds of light fixtures in any of our properties.

I've heard of the belt going out on a dryer, stopping the turn of the drum, leaving the clothes stationary too close to the heating element and resulting in a fire.

Snow bird friends of ours had a refrigerator ice maker water line malfunction in their vacation home in Palm Springs while they were away for the summer and the water ran for weeks throughout the house unchecked. It flooded the whole house and mold grew a foot hight up the walls, and on the woodwork and furniture. Major damage.

When tenants move-in, we give them a quick tutorial on safety in the home, but I'm still nervous. Our fire marshall spoke at our local rental association meeting and shared a piece of wisdom that I now share with our tenants.... "Did you know when you buy a cooking pot or pan in the United States, it comes with a fire extinguisher?.... It's called a lid."

Most house fires start in the kitchen, here's an excerpt from our property rules:

"STOVE, OVEN, AND RANGE HOOD: When cooking, Tenant agrees to use the range hood fan to clear cooking fumes out of the unit and to clean grease off appliances on a regular basis, as a build up of grease creates a fire hazard. If a stove top fire occurs, immediately turn off heat and smother fire with a lid or wet towel. Do not throw water on a grease fire and do not attempt to pick up the pan, as this will likely cause the fire to spread. In the case of an oven fire, turn off the heat and do not open the oven door; the fire should go out on its own. If the flame cannot be immediately tamed, quickly get out of the building and call 911 to report the fire."

We also include rules about candles, decorative holiday lights, storage of flammable and hazardous materials, smoke and CO detectors, fireworks, portable heaters, extension cords, electrical safety, egress, excessive cluttter and hoarding, and our no-smoking policy. 

In our coin-op laundry at our 8-plex, we post instructions about cleaning the lint filter before/after each load in the dryer, but I haven't emphasized that with our tenants in units with w/d hookups where they supply their own appliances.  We aim to clean the dryer vents in all of our properties once a year, but don't always get around to it. This is a good reminder to take action and be proactive!