Psalm 4:8 I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety. (King James Version)
We sleep with a sound machine on in our bedroom at night as we live in a VERY noisy area. We also have the Holy Bible on CD, and we play CD’s- on repeat- all night long on a small boom box that sits on our night table.
It was 7:30 a.m. Thursday, November 1, 2012.
I, Gail, was sound asleep. My husband, Eddie, had just woken up to go to the bathroom.
Suddenly, he was shaking me hard and telling me, “Honey, wake up, wake up…NOW!”
I was so sound asleep that I woke up in a daze, but I jumped out of bed fast when I heard the smoke detector right outside of our bedroom going off. It was deafeningly loud! I cannot believe that I slept through that.
We both smelled something burning, and the residue in the air burned our eyes, but there was no smoke and we couldn’t figure out what was on fire.
This, however, was no time to try to guess what the smell was. I called 911, reported that our smoke detector was going off- that something smelled like it was burning, and then we ran outside to await the firemen.
We have had an emergency fire plan in place for years now- after having watched SIX trailers in our area burn down in the last two years. When a house is on fire, you may have a chance to get out- but trailers go up in literally 5 minutes.
I grabbed my warm robe and put it on, zipping it up the front as I ran. I then took my cell phone and purse and ran out the door. (There was already a Bible in the van, so I didn’t have to grab one!) Eddie threw on his slippers and a warm jacket and headed out into the 38 degree morning!
I jumped into the van in our driveway and drove it to our neighbor’s house. (This got it out of the way of the firemen, and also protected it in case the trailer should catch fire.)
Two fire engines came racing up the hill a few short minutes later with about 6 or 7 trucks behind them. (Those were volunteers who had just come to help.) Even though the fire dept. is only a little over a mile from where we live, we could not believe how quickly they arrived.
They stopped the two fire trucks, and all of the other trucks as well, in the road in front of our trailer and a lot of men ran toward the front door of the trailer dragging and carrying lots of equipment with them. I was trying to tell them that there was no fire; that the smoke detector had simply alerted us to the fact that something smelled like it was burning- but there was so much activity and noise outside that no one could hear me.
Once we ALL got inside of our little trailer they spread out and looked everywhere to see what the smell was. The smoke detector had stopped going off, but there was still a hint of the smell left.
One man walked around with some kind of a gadget in his hand that measured the concentration of something- or- another in each room, but it didn’t show anything amiss!
They pulled up the vents on the floor and checked the duct work; took the door off the furnace unit and made sure that the furnace was okay; checked in every closet; and looked everywhere that they could to try to find the source of the burning smell. They stayed for about an hour- making sure that nothing was on fire, then left. (To tell you the truth, I think that they were quite disappointed that they didn’t get to use their battering rams, hoses, portable oxygen masks and tanks, and other equipment.)
But we were not disappointed, we were grateful that God had been there with us every step of the way- keeping our little, humble abode safe!
The house was suddenly eerily silent after all of the commotion of the last hour, but we were thankful that everything turned out okay. And it was only after things settled down that I cried, tears of both exhaustion and relief!
We could not, however, settle back down and go to sleep!
We wondered what the mystery smell had been, and why it had set off the smoke alarm for just a short time? (Those of you who have had your smoke detectors go off know how difficult it is to shut them off once they start!)
And where did the smell go?
We also wondered if this burning smell had anything to do with the incident from a couple of days before- when we had come home from shopping one night and found our bedroom in the dark, with the breaker tripped?!
Oh, well, the best thing that we can do for now is to pray that God continues to keep us safe.
Lessons we learned from this incident that we would like to share with you all:
1. ALWAYS make sure that your dishes are washed before going to bed; (Mine were!)
2. ALWAYS make sure that there is no dirty laundry on the floor in your bedroom; (We don’t have any there!)
3. Keep your floor vacuumed at all times- as you never know when a small army of men in boots, dragging dirty equipment behind them, might come running in and track dirt and dried grass all over the carpet; (Which I had vacuumed the night before!)
4. Make sure that your ‘unmentionables’ , if they are drying on a rack in the bathtub, are behind a shower curtain that you will hopefully remember to close, but probably won’t- when you run out of the house in a hurry in case of fire! (Yup- I forgot to close it!)
5. Make sure that you have a rechargeable screwdriver on hand- in case you need to take out 2 inch long screws in a hurry to check your furnace. (We have an electric, rechargeable screwdriver, but ours is a cheap one that cannot be stored- charged- on it’s base. You guessed it- it was dead! The fireman who had to take out the LONG screws by hand was very annoyed. Quite honestly, I was surprised that they didn’t carry an electric screwdriver with them. God only knows they had everything else!)
In all seriousness, everyone should have a plan about what to do in case of fire. Eddie and I have talked about it many times, but prayed that we would never have to put it to use. And when we did- it was like second nature- we just grabbed our things and ran.
Making fire escape plans is one of those things that we, as families, don’t like to discuss- kind of like writing out a Will!
But you really need to talk about this with your family members- particularly for those of you whose bedrooms are not on the main floor. A rope ladder is a better investment than a huge hospital bill, or a funeral bill- because you could not get out of a burning house by way of a second or third floor window.
Please discuss what you would do if you smelled smoke- especially in the middle of the night. AND- how would you get out of the house if different rooms were on fire?
It is a proven fact that people’s reflexes and reactions are slower when they first wake up- but I, Gail have had a LOT of EMT training over the years, so I knew instinctively what to do.
I keep a robe and slippers beside my bed, and the cell phone sits on my night table. My purse is on a table beside the front door.
When you discuss things like fire escape plans, then if you ever need to use those plans, even when you are half asleep- they will be easier to remember than if you have to try to figure out what to do when it is actually happening!
There are many deaths by fire every year.
The most tragic one that I can think of is the family of FIVE from CT who were killed at 3:30 a.m. on December 24, 2011. Two grandparents and their three young grandchildren died of smoke inhalation when the colonial house that they lived in went up in flames. They were asleep on the second and third floors. They panicked- and ran down the back stairway instead of the front one.
The mother of the children was asleep on the main floor. She ran up the front stairway to save her children and her parents- but they were in the back stairway, where their bodies were found hours later.
She survived, but with multiple burns herself.
A few moments of discussion and planning go a long way before an emergency actually happens.
But there is something that is way more important to plan for than any kind of emergency. However, it is little thought of in today’s busy world. And that something is…
ETERNITY!
Where will YOU spend eternity? Have you thought about it?
Will you be WITH Jesus Christ; or will you be separated FROM Him?
There is only ONE way to be with Jesus forever, and that one way is to become a Christian by being born-again. (Please note that all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, King James Version.)
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
1Corinthians 15:3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
1Corinthians 15:4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Romans 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
There is no special formula or secret to getting saved, or being ‘born-again’.
It is as easy as believing all of the above scriptures- that Jesus died and shed His sinless blood so that your sins could be forgiven; and that He rose from the grave three days after His crucifixion. You then simply need to pray and repent of (or turn from) your sins, and ask Jesus to forgive you.
See you in eternity!
May God richly bless all those who seek Him,
Eddie and Gail Shifflett
P.S. We are going out shopping on Friday- for, you guessed it, an electric screwdriver that can stay charged and ready to use at a moment’s notice!