firefighters

Thankfully I have never been in a wreck or a fire and hope to keep it that way. I have started fires before, in a fire pit at the cottage. I have been around friends however who are quite good at being clumsy and setting things on fire. My one friend (who cannot cook) tried to make spighetti. She decided to us a pot with little handles on it so they were hot when she went to go pick up the pot. So she decided to use a towel with fringes on the ends to grab it. I told her that wasn't the right thing to use and to get oven mits but she said it will be fine, she's just using it for 2 seconds so she can get the pot to the sink. I stood back watching, shaking my head because I could see that the towel would set on fire. Sure enough, the fringe hit the burner and started flaming. Thank God I was there, she freaked out, put the pot back down and threw the towel to the floor where she just staired at it!!! I thought quick and since it was still small and hadnt spread yet I stomped on it to put it out. If I hadn't have been there, she probably would have been in so much shock that she would have just let it burn on the ground and start a bigger fire! Needless to say, she took cooking lessons from ME after that!!

I admire the job that you both do, I could not do it. Some of the things you both must see must be heartbreaking. I was involved in a house fire, in my own house. I was a single parent at the time and I worked 12 hour shifts, I had done extra shifts and was extremely tired. I came home after my shift tired but hungry, we did not finish work until 8pm and did not have a dinner break in the evening so I had eaten nothing since lunch. I was not going to cook anything, but I had nothing in for a sandwhich, in fact I did not even have any bread so decided to do a burger under the grill. Bad idea, I fell asleep. Luckily some passers by who had been to the pub alerted the fire brigade and luckily myself, son and dog were rescued. It was awful and ultimately the end of my career as I realised that working myself into the ground nearly killed us and my son needed me with him. I was also homeless! That was in 1998 and things are a lot better now.