4 True Fire Stories
Fire is one of the most devastating natural forces on earth. It can destroy structures, property, and lives in a matter of minutes, and can consume entire neighbourhoods in a night.
We’ve talked about fire safety before on this blog, so today, we’ll be doing something a little different. In this post, we’ll be exploring 4 stories of survivors.
Fido’s Fire
If you have owned a dog, you have likely come home to a chewed slipper or other “toy” that your pet has found to entertain themselves with. For one Tulsa, OK family, this minor inconvenience of pet ownership turned into a nightmare when their dog decided to chow down on a portable power bank.
Power banks house lithium batteries that cram a lot of energy into a small space. When the battery is damaged, it can release the stored energy uncontrollably, sparking fire.
The Tulsa pooch found this out the hard way when his entertainment for the afternoon began sparking, immediately setting fire to the dog’s bed. The household’s two dogs and singular cat observe the growing fire as it spreads to the living room sofa before evacuating through a dog door. The entire event is caught on camera.
While the home was damaged, all pets were able to escape unharmed and no family was home for the fire.
Mother Saves Son from Blaze
In November of 1994, Hollye Dexter, her husband, and their two children suffered the loss of their home and all its contents when the house went up in flames.
Hollye had been on edge all day, sensing something amiss but unable to put her finger on the cause. After rising from sleep several times during the night to check the home and ensure her son was okay (the daughter was staying in another part of town that night), she was jolted awake by her husband’s shouts of alarm.
Her account of the events that followed is chilling and well worth the read, but here is an abridged version.
Hollye made her way through the thick, stinking smoke and flames to her son’s room, bundling him up and throwing open the window. Dangling her young son by his hands, she tried to get him away from the smoke and into fresher air. She heard her husband call out that he would be there in a moment – he was going to jump – before listening to the sound of bone on concrete.
As the back of her calves began to blister and the heat grew unbearable, she realized she would need to drop her son, or risk them both dying in the flames. A moment later, her husband was below them, waiting to catch the young boy.
After dropping her son into her husband’s waiting arms, it was Hollye’s turn to jump. She registered the impact distantly, as if it happened to someone else, before being pulled to her feet. The family ran to safety to watch as their three story home was engulfed.
Recovery is a part of emergency preparedness that doesn’t get discussed as much as survival, but it is just as critical. Hollye recounts the aftermath of the fire: the overwhelming support, the helpful (and sometimes odd) donations, and the Red Cross representative that helped them to orient and begin rebuilding their lives. Without any ID, documents, clothes, or keepsakes, Hollye and her family take on the task of returning to normalcy.
Hollye’s full story can be found in her memoir, Fire Season.
Fire Spreads to 2 Homes – Family escapes in the nick of time
When a fire started in their garage overnight, Jodi Deikel, her daughter, and her two grandchildren had to get out fast.
“[I] threw my 5-year-old granddaughter out the window, threw my dog out the window and then I jumped out the window,” said Deikel.
Meanwhile Deikal’s daughter scooped up the remaining grandchild and fled the house on foot.
Deikal was the only person injured. She had severe burns on her legs that required a stay in the hospital’s intensive care unit for two and a half weeks. She was touched by the outpouring from the community as family and neighbours gathered around them.
An online fundraiser raised $10,000 for the family to help them rebuild.
First Home in Flames
Having to face a fire at any age, and in any home, is terrifying, but imagine if it was your first home at 19. That’s what happened to Allison Ramirez in her third story apartment one fateful September night.
Having been living without her parents for less than a year, Allison was laying in her bed one night, struggling to fall asleep when she smelled smoke. Allison’s roommate was styling her hair in the bathroom, and Allison rose to ensure that the hairdryer wasn’t the source of the smell. After a few moments, the building’s fire alarm sounded.
Unsure what to do, the pair leashed Allison’s dog and decided to head to the street to find out what was going on.
“I didn’t think the situation was life-threatening at all. You never really do, until after you’ve lived through it. Little did I know that what we were about to experience would impact my life from that moment forward.” – Allison Ramirez
As they ran down the fire escape in flip flops and too long pajama pants, Allison realized that she couldn’t even see her feet for the smoke. Arriving outside, she stood with other neighbours watching the firefighters work. They gossiped about who could have started the fire and what the results would be.
It wasn’t until she saw flames pouring from her own bedroom window that she realized how serious the situation truly was. Thankfully, no lives were lost in the fire, though Allison did lose most of her worldly possessions.
“I had nightmares in the beginning — and I still do, occasionally — about what could’ve happened to me had I not woken up.”
Stories of Resilience
These stories remind us of the strength and resilience of the human spirit in the face of unimaginable challenges. They also highlight the importance of community, preparedness, and the will to rebuild and recover.
