Did you forget to check your batteries?  The National Fire Protection Agency advises that we check smoke detectors every time we change our clocks for daylight savings time.  I don't know about you, but I didn't do it last time.  A few recent articles I read have prompted me to take care of this NOW.

You'd think I would know better.  We had a home fire on January 13, 1992. 

At the time, I was a volunteer with the Auke Bay Fire Department, a division of Capital City Fire/Rescue .  I was trained as a Firefighter I, and had additional training in swift water rescue, ice rescue, accident extraction (Jaws of Life), arson detection and fire cause investigation.  I was also on the juvenile fire-setter prevention task force.

All the more embarrassing that one of my children started this fire. 

The flashlight wasn't where it belonged but several feet away on the same counter sat a lighter.  My younger son was convinced there were monsters under the bed, and the older one went to get the flashlight to prove there were no monsters. 

When they came running down the hall to my room our lives changed forever.

I called 911 and sent the boys down the stairs to my car.  They didn't want to go, of course, but I yelled until they did.  I was dressed in a t-shirt nightgown and my long hair was loose.  However, my training kicked in and I acted like I was in full bunker gear.  I closed all the doors and windows and emptied two fire extinguishers onto the fire, aiming at the base of the flames, just like I was trained to do.  The fire was confined to their room, but the smoke was just awful, choking me and the heat was so intense.  Finally I realized I had nothing left to do, so when I closed the door to their room, I got wet towels from the kitchen and put them under the door.

The entire time I could hear the chatter on my fire department pager.  Auke Bay volunteers thought the address was pretty close to my apartment.  Glacier Fire Department career firefighters answered that it was my apartment and they were also responding as I was in an automatic mutual aid area.  I heard a friend who was driving the truck from Auke Bay ask, twice, if my children were inside our out.  No response.  Then the roar of the diesel engine coming over the hill, along with the sirens - about the time the second extinguisher ran out.  Time seemed to move in slow motion and it seemed like forever till I saw the guys pull up outside.  At this time they still weren't sure the boys were outside so you can imagine the thundering footsteps coming up the stairs.

About this time, the smoke had really started to get to me.  I almost collapsed into a fellow firefighters arms as he helped me down the stairs.  The feeling of helplessness was overwhelming.  They wouldn't allow me to put on my gear and join them so I was left standing in the parking lot, still in what was left of my nightgown.  Another firefighter helped me clean my hands and arms with fresh snow, water and bandaged them up.  Even with second and third degree burns I was trying to get someone to let me put on my gear and issue me an airpack, but of course they wouldn't let me have one. 

There's so much I don't remember about the details that followed.  I don't remember where I slept that night.  I cannot remember all the details of friends and strangers that helped us rebuild our lives and replace what we'd lost.

My hairdresser had an awful time with my hair, and it ended up getting cut very short - more like a man's cut.  Strange that it had always been straight and thin.  Today it's very thick and curly!  I have a few scars on my arms from the burns, but really, we were so lucky.

In 2007, 24 people in Alaska died from fires, seven of those were children younger under 6.  These fires had one thing in common.  There were no working smoke alarms in any of the house fires with fatalities.

Please, check your batteries today.  No more procrastination!