Question of the Month - bloghop for June 2015

 




Question of the Month blog hop - June 2015



If your house caught on fire, what's the one thing you'd grab before running out?

It would depend upon who was at home at the time. If it would happen at night on an ordinary weekday, when my daughter is with me, the first thing I would do would be to wake her and tell her to get out of the house, and see that she actually does just that.

Then I would get a blanket or large towel and wrap it around our cat, Matilda, and take her with me as I leave. Cats can fight and claw when they are frightened. They panic. And fire makes them panic and do stupid things like hiding in a closet or running away from you or cutting you with their claws or biting you.  So I would wrap her in a blanket or put her in a carrier (if I have one handy, which I do not have at the moment) to protect me as well as the cat.

What if my daughter, Elisabet, doesn't wake up in time? Then I would carry her out myself.(Thankfully, we live on the ground floor and don't need to worry about hopping out of a sky-scraper.)

If I were alone, I would just take Matilda, the cat, on my way out.

This is a really good question to think about. Maybe I should make a 'ditch-kit' with important documents and priceless photos handy to take with me on my way out. It depends upon how fast things happens. Fire can burn really quickly, so it is imperative to get out of harm's way fast -- really fast. It can be a matter of seconds. 

There may not be time to save any material possessions at all. Which is sad. (I think of all of my antiques, paintings, books, photos and drawings.) But to perish in a fire is worse. If you come out of it alive and unharmed, you have a chance of starting over, even if you have lost your material and sentimental possessions.

Best wishes,

Anna

First Commenter:

Michael G. D'Agostino