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Garage Fire:

Safety has always been a top priority with me, although sometimes it doesn't seem like it. I am cautious even when I'm taking chances. Everyone takes chances, whether it is climbing up on a wobbly chair or step ladder. I can remove a broken light bulb without getting shocked or cutting my fingers. It's all taking a chance. I wouldn't install 220 volt wall outlet without turning off the circuit.

I am cautious when it comes to fire alarms, and I have fire extinguishers available in and out of the house. Their was a time when I needed to use the extinguisher on the garage. It was back in the seventy's when the gas shortage hoax was going on. I had stored a fifty gallon drum of fuel behind the garage for emergency's.

Each week I would add a couple gallons of gas to the barrel. It was fine until my oldest son decided to see if what I had told him was true, about my shop towels being fireproof. He took my one gallon gas can which was full and soaked the rag in the can and attempted to set it on fire. It didn't burn, but the gas can caught on fire. Fortunately the can was full, so it didn't explode. It just burned on the top.

In his haste to put out the flame he knocked over the can. The fire rolled to the back door of the garage, about five feet from where he was. He was intelligent enough to run into the house and tell his mother that there was a fire. She went out to see and ran back in to wake me. I worked the night shift. Mom said that she was calling the fire department.

That woke me up fast. I ran into the garage. By this time the back door was on fire. I grabbed the extinguisher that I kept in the garage and put the fire out. I had to reach around the back side of the door to spray that. Looking around the door opening I could see that the danger was over. My fifty gallon gas barrel was only ten foot from the flames. I was fortunate that the fire didn't reach it.

The fire department came and double checked on my extinguishing the fire and suggested that I be sure to keep a close eye on a couple of four by four's that were in the wall of the garage by the door. They didn't see my stash of gas or I would have been fined. My wife told them how the fire started. My son was not about to come out of the house while they were there.

One of the firemen asked if I would like him to speak to my son. I told him that I was sure my son was so scared, that he wouldn't pull another stunt like that again. I did have a talk with my boy about how close he came to blowing his face off and killing himself as well as burning the house down. He said that he would never do anything so stupid again. He even told me that he had tried to blow the fire out when it first started.

Even being cautious doesn't insure against fire, but in this case I was glad that I believe in keeping fire extinguishers handy.

Learn more about this author, Donald Courtney.
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