Stove-Top Fires.
One of the major causes of fire is leaving the stove on. Don't leave it on if you think you're gonna be distracted by a phone call, or the television, or whatever.
And especially don't leave it on right before bed coz you just might forget to turn it off, go to sleep and then wake up dead.
This happened to me just now. The stove-top fire part, not the redundancy of waking up dead.
Thankfully, I managed to do what needed to be done as soon as I discovered the smoke that was steadily and very quickly taking over our apartment, coz I'm just fucking kickass like that. It's tough to act when there's an emergency like this one, especially stove-top fires, because our instinctive reactions are usually wrong.
Here are some quick tips that might come in handy in the future.
1) If it's a grease/oil fire on the stove, in a pan or a pot or whatever, don't put it out with water. Water would only make it worse.
If it's a small fire contained in the pan, try to smother it with a large wet towel, or a large pot cover. Don't try to take it outside.
In case of a bigger fire, call 999 in Jeddah so help is on the way, wake everyone up, and get everyone out of the building.
2) If you managed to put the small fire out, check everything in the kitchen and make sure nothing is still burning.
3) Check everyone in the house and make sure everyone is alright. If the smoke takes over the entire house, open all windows and exhaust fans/extractors. If people are sleeping, wake them up in case the smoke gets in their bedrooms.
If you're the kind of person who panics in emergencies, I strongly suggest you read up more on what precautions to take, or what to do in case of emergencies. In fact, even if you don't panic in these situations, it's always smart to know what to do.
I'm pretty fucking shaken up; I was just about to get in bed then, and if I hadn't forced myself to get up and go to the bathroom, I wouldn't have known what was going on. I was the only one awake, and the stove, the fire was STILL ON.
I didn't panic at the time, but thinking about it right now, if I had stayed in bed, I'm pretty sure we would all be fucking dead.
This all happened about 30 minutes ago, and the only reason I'm blogging about it is that none of my friends are awake or online for me to tell them about my exaggerated Third Watch badassery. Or how I'm really shaken up at the thought that I would have been dead right now, and there would be no blog entry.
And I thought this morning when I woke up that today was gonna be boring.
P.S.
I also actually ran for my abaya and stuffed it in a safe place so that it doesn't smell of smoke when I wear it the next morning. That's how calm I was. Or how important an abaya is in this country. I hose myself just remembering it.
And especially don't leave it on right before bed coz you just might forget to turn it off, go to sleep and then wake up dead.
This happened to me just now. The stove-top fire part, not the redundancy of waking up dead.
Thankfully, I managed to do what needed to be done as soon as I discovered the smoke that was steadily and very quickly taking over our apartment, coz I'm just fucking kickass like that. It's tough to act when there's an emergency like this one, especially stove-top fires, because our instinctive reactions are usually wrong.
Here are some quick tips that might come in handy in the future.
1) If it's a grease/oil fire on the stove, in a pan or a pot or whatever, don't put it out with water. Water would only make it worse.
If it's a small fire contained in the pan, try to smother it with a large wet towel, or a large pot cover. Don't try to take it outside.
In case of a bigger fire, call 999 in Jeddah so help is on the way, wake everyone up, and get everyone out of the building.
2) If you managed to put the small fire out, check everything in the kitchen and make sure nothing is still burning.
3) Check everyone in the house and make sure everyone is alright. If the smoke takes over the entire house, open all windows and exhaust fans/extractors. If people are sleeping, wake them up in case the smoke gets in their bedrooms.
If you're the kind of person who panics in emergencies, I strongly suggest you read up more on what precautions to take, or what to do in case of emergencies. In fact, even if you don't panic in these situations, it's always smart to know what to do.
I'm pretty fucking shaken up; I was just about to get in bed then, and if I hadn't forced myself to get up and go to the bathroom, I wouldn't have known what was going on. I was the only one awake, and the stove, the fire was STILL ON.
I didn't panic at the time, but thinking about it right now, if I had stayed in bed, I'm pretty sure we would all be fucking dead.
This all happened about 30 minutes ago, and the only reason I'm blogging about it is that none of my friends are awake or online for me to tell them about my exaggerated Third Watch badassery. Or how I'm really shaken up at the thought that I would have been dead right now, and there would be no blog entry.
And I thought this morning when I woke up that today was gonna be boring.
P.S.
I also actually ran for my abaya and stuffed it in a safe place so that it doesn't smell of smoke when I wear it the next morning. That's how calm I was. Or how important an abaya is in this country. I hose myself just remembering it.
I'm so glad you live to tell the tale. Seriously. Alhamdulillah. But hey, my class discipline issues are nothing compared to this!!! BTW, do emergency services usually respond quickly? A friend's downstairs neighbour had a fire and when she called 999 they hung up on her! Unfortunately, the neighbour had weak lungs and later died of inhalation.
ReplyDeleteTake care my friend
xxx
Hey Diana ...
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about the fire and glad to know that you were the heroine of the story :)
You know I'm always thinking about how we really sucks when it comes to safety 101. It seems that we just do not care and we leave it to chances.
Anyway, you should look at the bright side; having such 'coolness' in the face of fire qualifies you to be a fire fighter ;)
thanks a lot for the tips and alhamduliAllah things went fine there :)
ReplyDeleteThat's so sad; people do die of smoke inhalation. I asked my friends and NONE OF US have smoke detectors in our flats! That's crazy! That's how unimportant it is in Jeddah! And I thought I was the ONLY ONE in Jeddah who didn't have one!
ReplyDeleteThis is such an important part of our daily lives that we neglect so much. We should tell everyone we know.
And yes, alhamdulillah, thanks guys. The bright side IS that I fire-fought, as my friend Menelik put it. :) Be safe, everyone!