Reaction times

Moving into a new house necessitated new fire procedures so that all would know what to do; however the more we practiced different scenarios the more the girls cried and by the end of the night, E and T were hysterical and thought they'd die in the basement and be trapped if they couldn't make it upstairs and had to retreat back to the room and go out the window. M was crying and sobbing that she didn't want E and T to die. We have since added a ladder to help them climb out of the window well to help alleviate the fear that Steve wouldn't be there in time and when we added window well covers E and T once again thought they'd be trapped until I told them that they could push them off. It has been a struggle to get them to understand that we will not leave them down there and that it is Dad's responsibility to get them out while I get the two smaller ones upstairs. Each night their prayers include the desire that no fire should come to our home or to anybody else's home in the world and that tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes or burglars will not come either. T quite literally jumps if she hears the smoke alarm. Now I'm not the best cook and sometimes the smoke alarms go off when I'm baking and without fail, E and T will run up to the front door if they hear it and ask me what's wrong. They are prepared to leave the house if necessary with M and H right behind them. A few days after we practiced our initial fire drill the girls were taking showers. One of the smoke detectors downstairs is very sensitive to the steam emitted from the bathroom downstairs (we're working on that problem) and I hear one of them go off. I'm about to head downstairs to check everything out when E comes running up the stairs and right behind her is T fresh from the shower with soap still in her hair, dripping wet, and no towel. She had heard the alarm and knew she had to get out of the house. She was ready to run outside to our meeting spot before I stopped her and grabbed her a towel and told her and E to wait with M and H while I checked things out and then if need be we'd exit the house. Steve told me later that we need to talk to them again and I said we would but that wasn't it great to see such great reaction times from everyone.

It was almost like the time shortly after we moved in and I hear "Fire in the bathroom!" from E. I'm thinking, "Fire in the bathroom? Is it an electrical fire?" Then I hear again, "Fire!" I know that E is going to the bathroom and now there is a fire with her. I run downstairs as my first thought is get the girls and get out and I yell back questioning what I've heard, "Fire?" Again I hear, "Fire!" I'm now rounding the hallway and can see the bathroom but there is no smoke or smell of smoke. I keep running and when I get there, E shouts out, "It's in the tub! The SPIDER's in the tub!" Oh spider, not fire. Then I see Steve running with the fire extinguisher. He heard all the "fire" yelling and wanted to put out the fire. See his first thought was save the children and put out the fire where as mine was just save the children.

Just remember that you really shouldn't yell "spider" in the house because it can sound an awfully lot like "fire" when you're in the kitchen and to have an extra towel ready just in case someone needs it during the fire alarm.