Two years ago, my fiancee was at home when she looked out the window to see some kids literally “playing with fire” in the alleyway behind the house — the fire quickly got out of control, and, kids being kids, they ran away to leave my fiancee panicking in the house.
She ran to the kitchen and filled a bucket with water — forgetting in her panic that there was a fire extinguisher next to the sink — before running out to the alley and extinguishing the fire, with the help of a neighbour.
The blind panic of having to deal with a real emergency rendered her faculties of logic completely useless.
Your panicking stories
In a discussion on another post, we touched on the idea of people panicking when faced with an actual fire emergency. This is, of course, what fire drills are supposed to address — to ensure that people don’t panic when they hear a fire alarm.
What situations have you been in where you were faced with a fire that you really weren’t expecting? What did you do? Did you do the right thing — did your knowledge of fire safety and prevention spring straight into action — or did you do something completely mad? Like this story shared by IFSEC Global user safeNsane:
We had a fairly large brush fire here last year because someone was having a BBQ and it got out of control, instead of making any attempt to put it out, they pushed it into a stand of palmettos which are pretty much a fire waiting to happen. Panic makes people do some strange things.
Whether it was something you did, or a friend, or a client, or if it was an incident that you were faced with or read about, we’d love to hear some of your stories, and even see any pictures you might have as well. Use the comment stream below to share your story.
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