Fire in My Home Today

Do you know what to do in the case of an electrical fire? I sure could have used that information this morning.

Just as I was about to head out the door for work, I reached to turn off my bedside lamp. Apparently, I hit the lampshade, which awkwardly collided with the base of the bulb setting. This caused the bulb to blow, which isn't really abnormal. However, this time when the bulb blew, sparks flew. Those sparks caught on to the lampshade. It didn't just melt. There were really flames. I panicked. I felt like I couldn't throw water on it because it was still on the lamp, which was plugged in. But because it was a small lamp, I did what I knew to do: Started blowing.

Once the flames were out, I unplugged the lamp and leaned on the side of the bed to catch my breath.

Let me tell you how quickly this could have turned another way.

For the past week or so, my daughter has slept in my bed. (She doesn't cuddle up against me or anything like that. She holds Sandy, her teddy bear that she "built" while at the beach. I think she just liked knowing I was there.) Most of the time that she sleeps with me, when I wake up in the morning, I'll turn on my bedside lamp rather than the overhead light. Considering the fact that I get up at 3:30 a.m., I don't want her to wake that early.

Sometimes, I'll leave the light on so she's not disoriented when she wakes up. Thankfully, last night she returned to her own bed. But had this been one of those times, all it would have taken was for her to accidentally bump into the lamp while reaching for the remote; and the lampshade would have caught fire on HER rather than on me. As intelligent as she is, I don't think she would have known what to do other than scream.

I think I'll take this occurrence as 1) a reminder to go over fire safety with my daughter, 2) a reminder to brush up on fire safety for myself, and 3) a reminder that the things that other people endure could easily be my story. I thank God for His protection and for sending my child to her own bed last night.