Monday, April 13, 2009

Why to turn off the washer and dryer before you leave the house

I hope that you all had a Blessed Holy Week. My first blog post after Holy Week gives us all a visual reminder to be careful.

Click here and look at these photos.

A Looper's sister had this fire in their house. This house was on the market and many of their belongings were in storage in order to sell the house. But they did have some antique furniture and other items in the house. No one was home. She put some bedding in the washer before she left and the washer caught on fire. The fire put itself out with water from the pipes steaming and lack of oxygen from the house being sealed up. When she returned home she did not know there was a fire until she entered the home. The fire inspector said that usually homes like this burn to the ground. They plan to use the photos of this for training. The entire house is a loss and will be gutted to the studs.

I have always been careful about the dryer after a friend in high school told the story of how they had a house fire because of a dryer fire. Then another one of our friends had a house fire a few years ago because of the dryer. I haven't always been as careful about the washer though. This makes me want to check our smoke alarms regularly and never let the washer OR dryer run when we aren't home.

It also is a good visual for our children of why we should stay low during a fire if you are trying to make an escape.

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