Have you ever had a large or dangerous fire near your home?

United States
August 4, 2009 10:32pm CST
Today we were going to a concert about 20 minutes from our house. We had to take a detour because there is an oil company on fire. It is less than a mile from my brother's house. The fire has been burning since 3:30pm today & it is currently 11:30pm. Two or three tanks of oil have exploded. Fire departments from several surrounding communities have been called in to help. The news just interviewed the fire chief. He said the fire is not containted & that there is a very large, I believe he said 15,000 gallon, tank of unleaded gas & another tank or two of diesel fuel near the fire. He was asked if the fire was going to spread to the gas tanks & he said he hopes not. Then he said that they are pulling all the fire fighters off the scene & leaving a pumper truck that is pumping foam on the fire & doesn't have to be manned. That doesn't sound good at all! A large area has been evacuated. This includes my brother's house & also my young niece's home where she lives with her mom, step-dad & step-siblings. I hope everyone in that area is safe tonight. Have you ever had a large or dangerous fire near your home?
7 people like this
14 responses
• Canada
5 Aug 09
Wow!!! That's unbelieveable. Walker had a pretty big fire near where he used to live, before I got there, when some homeless people played with matches, and damn near set the entire desert on fire. Do you know how D R Y Arizona is? that one was kinda scary, as he told it. And the pictures he snapped were unbelieveable!! As for me, the closest I've gotten to a big fire near my place is when a relative of mine let a candle get too close to a pillow and...
2 people like this
@dawnald (85129)
• Shingle Springs, California
6 Aug 09
Growing up in Los Angeles there were always wildfires in the fall when the Santa Ana winds kicked up. The closest one to our house growing up was probably about a quarter of a mile. My husband's parents house had one come up right behind the house and they were all on the roof hosing things down. When my parents moved back to the valley, to Woolsey Canyon, they were evacuated several times due to fires. I don't know anybody who lost a home due to one though. I do know one family who lost theirs due to fire in the Northridge earthquake.
1 person likes this
• United States
6 Aug 09
I have family in Tustin, CA & I always wonder about their safety when there is a fire in the area. They talk often about earthquakes & how so many things get broken.
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85129)
• Shingle Springs, California
6 Aug 09
Can be pretty scary. I used to sleep with earplugs and the night before the Northridge quake for some reason I didn't. Another premonition? I don't know but I'm glad I wasn't using them when it hit!
@mentalward (14691)
• United States
5 Aug 09
Not that big near my home but there was a fire very similar to that in Baltimore City when I lived there. It took place at an oil refinery. Five of those massive tanks exploded and they burned for about 24 hours. Smoke very literally filled the sky. It was about 15 miles from my house but I could see the smoke very clearly. I had to drive somewhere that evening and I could see the flames from miles away. VERY scary, indeed! We had a moron start a kitchen fire a block up from our house once. He came home from a bar around 2:00 a.m., falling-down drunk, and decided to make some french fries... from scratch. After putting the potatoes in the hot oil, he sat down to wait, and fell asleep. The oil got too hot, started splattering out of the pan and caught fire, which ended up burning 7 houses in the process... his and 3 on each side of him. (These were town homes.) It was the most massive fire I've seen this close to me. Fire trucks were parked in front of my house which was about a block and a half away from this idiot's house. Fire trucks were also filling up the alley behind these houses. They were using every hydrant around, including those well past my house, way down the street. It was a 5-alarm fire. I have to tell you that I was worried as more and more fire trucks came to the scene. When they began parking in front of my house, I was gathering up important documents and ready to wake my kids in a moment's notice to get the heck outta there! Luckily, for me anyway, it only affected those seven houses. Three of them were condemned from the fire damage, two needed a LOT of repairs and 2 only needed some roof work where the fire had spread but, of course, there was smoke damage to even more of those houses on that block. The moron who started the fire got out without a single burn. All he needed was some oxygen from smoke inhalation. Figures!
• United States
5 Aug 09
I'm sorry to hear about the fire being so close to family. I hope everything will be contained soon and that they are safe. I use to live in California with my three children and there was a huge forest fire. Firemen came from all over our country and Canada to help fight it. I had to water down my property and home, this being achieved with the help of my children. All the fire had to do was jump across the small road to get to our property,We would have lost all we had. I had no time or anyone to take my children off of the mountain to safety.
1 person likes this
• United States
6 Aug 09
Thank you for your concern. The fire has since been contained today & the large drums of gasoline did not explode. My brother did stay in his house last night, although he was in the evacuation area. I'm glad when the fire was in your area that it didn't come up to your house. What a scary thing.
• Philippines
5 Aug 09
That's horrible! it's a good thing you were safe. the big fire that i remember was way back 2006 where the public market close to our our by one block and 3 houses burned into flames. it was 4 am when it happened and it cause a black out in our part of our neighborhood. luckily, no one got hurt.
1 person likes this
@sylvaron (16)
• United States
5 Aug 09
I've had an entire forest fire near my house before which the nearby fire station had to put out. I feel especially sorry for people over in places such as California where like several counties will be blazing in a giant wildfire every few years... kindof a crazy thought.
1 person likes this
@sacmom (14192)
• United States
9 Aug 09
How scary! I hope no one was injured from it. I had a couple of fires near my home before. One was actually on the other side of my landlord's house which is located on the same property. It wasn't exactly huge, but it was still a close call because it was right next to their house and it was spreading quickly. Fortunately the fire department was able to put it out and the only damage that was done was some of my landlord's field got burned down. Shortly after that incident, there was another fire down the street at a nursery (for plants, not children). The business went up in flames, but no one was hurt from it. A helicopter was brought in help put it out. Hopefully those will be the only fires around here for a long time to come. Stay safe!
@daryljane (3406)
• Philippines
5 Aug 09
Oh yeah! Its been going on for 5 hours already and the fire fighters still ahsnt contained the fire yet. Although we are confident its not going to eat the house since we have this high fire wall before us, we still packed out things and getting ready to leave anytime. Good thing, some fire station from nearby cities sent their fire truck to help out and we didnt have to pack our things and leave.
@idowrite72 (2213)
• United States
5 Aug 09
When I was a kid, we lived several blocks from an oil refinery and I can remember one time that there was an explosion of some kind and a fire. I can't remember much about it since it was before I was 9 years old, but I do remember my father walking down in that direction to check to see what was going on. How smart would THAT be with an entire refinery there? If I remember correctly, there was a fire, but it was contained and didn't last all that long, but thinking of a fire at an OIL refinery, is enough to scare me NOW!!
@paula27661 (15811)
• Australia
5 Aug 09
Fire - Victorian bush fires
I haven’t experienced large fires near my home. My brother in law had the scare of his life early this year. He and his family live in Victoria Australia where they experienced horrible bush fires in February this year. I can’t remember the exact number but as I recall around 173 people were killed and so many lost everything they owned, not to mention the injured and the poor animals that were hurt or killed. My brother in law is a policeman and not easily intimidated by anything; he sent his wife and four children away and he and a friend stayed at the house to fight the fire. The picture below shows the view from his backyard a tad too close for comfort!There is a railway line at the back of his property and the fire stopped just before that line as if held back by the hand of God, truly amazing and terrifying!
1 person likes this
@mermaidivy (15395)
• United States
5 Aug 09
There was a quite big fire on the other street recently, it ended up burnt down the house... don't know if anybody got hurt though... hope not. And couple months ago, I have made a fire by myself in my back yard that was very scary... I burnt the paper in a little bucket and I thought all the ashes was put off so I dumbed it into the dumb... as soon as I dumbed it, the fire just burnt right up... I went to get the host immediately and hose it off... that was very scary, I couldn't believe I almost burn down the house!
@thea09 (18305)
• Greece
5 Aug 09
Hi windymyre, the fires which raged throughtout Greece a couple of summers ago didn't get too close to the village but they felt as if they did as the smoke from them came inside the house and each day there was a layer of ash over everything. The sea helicopters coming for water spent a lot of time just nearby filling up with seawater. At the time the local men stayed up all night on fire control so they could put out anything which started nearby. The charred devastation afterwards is an eerie sight.
1 person likes this
@jack_xie (56)
• China
5 Aug 09
best wish !hope everyone there is safe . to be honest , i had suffered from some fire just happened near my school ,it is the spontaneous fire.luckly ,there are no dangerous .
1 person likes this
• India
5 Aug 09
hii........i am just sharing a very true incident with you..... just a few months back...i am just passing my time reading a book...then suddenly i saw aflame is rising up at my side of my door..first i don't take care thought something for any mosquito .....but a time i saw that its my dustbin that is burning in a high manner....i have to rush to downstairs and got a bucket of water and try to cool it..........later i discovered..that its from my match stick which i threw and it got fire....its very terrifying......... share our ones