Anyone else here absolutely terrified of house fires?

melmo

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Its my biggest fear. Hearing a fire truck makes me panic. Because I am terrified of losing my babies.
Doesn't help that a cat that I gave to coworkers a year and a half ago died in a fire this week. She was my cat's sister. She had lived through 3 housefires in her short 2 year life, and the fourth one killed her.
I have a sticker on my front door window saying what pets we have in case of emergency and a number to call but I don't feel like it's enough.
Anyone else as paranoid as me?
 

sparkie

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About a month ago, I had a potholder fall from its hook and the edge of it was touching the stove. It quickly caught fire but I smelled something and doused the thing before it got bad.

Since then I've been pretty on edge about having the stove on. Not to mention our entire place is electric and I keep waiting for something to short circuit one of these days.

Your cat's sister lived through 3 house fires? Wow. What a brave little girl she was
At least now she's safe over the bridge and won't have to worry about it ever again!
 
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melmo

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Yea she lived through 3 fires. In a year and a half. It's unbelievable.
 

nanner

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I wasn't until about almost 2 years ago when I came home from work and found my apartment destroyed by fire. It was the worst feeling in the world, to come home and find that. It was random. I had left nothing on. The fire marshall said it was a really old can of Easy-Off that had corroded and fumes were escaping and the pilot light from the stove lit the fumes. It was a really old stove. The stove was about 4 feet from the cabinet under the sink where I had the stuff.

Thank God, I didn't have a cat then. I got Larry a year ago in January. And since then I've been paranoid. I check and double check before I leave to make sure there are no burners on, nothing's plugged in that shouldn't be.

I also have a sign on my door saying I have a cat, in case something happens while I'm gone. But the thought terrifies me.
 

mrblanche

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I hate to say it, but 4 fires in 2 years is not coincidence, to my way of thinking. Poor kitty!

Yes, fires scare me.

We attended a memorial service a couple of years ago for Dottie's dad. He had a lot of relatives, and many of them made it. One of Dottie's cousins, who had been at that service, died with her son in a fire at their home near Springfield, MA, that night.
 

capt_jordi

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Yes very much so.

in high school one of my best friend had her cousin, aunt, and grandmother perish in an early morning house fire. It was a very hard time for everyone, she was a sweet girl and was taken way too soon. it also really effected my boyfriends sister because her and the girl had been best friends and had had a fight over something dumb and had never gotten to make things better.

I feel a little safer now that our house isnt connected to anyone elses. My last apartment was a duplex and the family that lived next to us were horrible rednecks that fought constantly (it was a normally weekend activity to have the cops called) and were drunk 90% of the time. I was always terrified that they would be drunk and end up catching something on fire and in turn catching out house on fire.... thats never a safe feeling.

I also have a weird fear that if I'm in a hotel or vacation rental that the place is going to catch on fire. I always take a decent look at the emergency plans on the door, that seems to help some.
 

zoeysmom

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Yes, and this is a recent anxiety of mine since I've had cats in the apartment.

When I'm home, I'm not so concerned. I'm much more concerned that a fire might happen when no one is home to get Belle and Delilah out safely. I want to get a couple of decals, but the people upstairs also have several cats and a dog, so I'm not overly confident that they'd all get out safely. Also, my cats hide when they get scared....which would happen if a smoke alarm went off or strange people with scary uniforms came in. Would firefighters check under the beds/couches or in my closet for the cats like I would? I have my doubts.

I will feel much better once we move out of our current apartment. It's a basement apartment in an older house...and I'm not overly confident about the electrical. That said, I live about a minute away from the fire station, so that is a bit of a help.

It DOES not at all help that I have known 2 different people in my life who have had house fires since Christmas. Luckily, no one was hurt in either fire, nor were any pets. But it just fuels my fire...pardon the pun.
 

pipersjo

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I am absolutely terrified of a fire! Dec 12, 2001, the man my mom married woke me up telling me that there was a fire in the house. I tried to go back to sleep (apparently CO must have been affecting me) and for some reason, woke up again, realized the house really was on fire and escaped with only a burn on my foot. ALL of our pets died-- including the outside dogs that were in a kennel right beside the house. The kennel was there to block the wind. Unfortunately, the wind was blowing so hard that night the dogs were overcome by smoke and our house was gone in about 45 minutes- completely gone. I escaped with the clothes on my back. No shoes, no coat, nothing but pants and a t shirt. The fire was so hot that the windows in my car melted. I cannot stand the man that my mom married, but I owe him my life.
 

carolpetunia

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Count my mom and me in this category. We're both scared to death of fire, and would love to move from this gas-heated house if we could afford to.

I won't even give candles as gifts, because I'm so afraid of being responsible for someone's house burning down.
 

jugen

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I agree. I'm so worried about my babies that I refuse to go on vacation far away because something could happen to them.
We left one time to Chicago for the weekend, came back to find the house really hot(it was summer then) and the central air running, but something went wrong with the central air and it kept running and running but wasn't able to keep the temp to where we had it set. Dh's mom didn't notice it, so when I got back and felt the house, I was NOT a happy camper.
My kitties could've gotten heat stroke since it was hot hot hot and there were no windows opened. Since that time, I've been leery about leaving even for the weekend...
Fires are my biggest worry though. I want to get an alarm system just so they can tell if something is on fire and save my animals before something happens to them. I hate being away from the house because of it..
Stems from my sister setting the curtains on fire. She put fried chicken on the stove and left to take the dogs for a walk.....
needless to say, when she came back there were firetrucks all over and I was coming home from the store and had NO idea what had happened until one of the firemen told me... She burned up the whole kitchen and thankfully nothing else...How's that for a nice welcome home??
 

calico2222

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When I was 7 or 8 my father was laid off from his job and took a part time job selling smoke detectors. I sat through on of his demonstrations which included a movied...basically a shock factor movie about what could happen during a house fire. After that I was terrified of fire!

Ironically enough, the year I moved away from home, my parent's house DID catch on fire. It was contained to the basement thank god, but there was smoke damage through out the house. I came home for a month to help them get things straightened up. So, yeah, I'm terrified of fire and am paranoid about leaving anything plugged in.
 

mrblanche

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Dottie's folks' house burned down about 2 years after we got married. Actually, it was a mobile home. It happened while everyone was gone, but it killed the two cats in the house, one of which had been Dottie's cat before we got married.
 

ut0pia

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I used to go back after leaving in the morning to check and make sure I turn everything off even though I was pretty sure I'd done it. It just makes me shiver thinking my kitty inside with no way of getting out ....
 
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