Our very small house is built into the steep hillside. Living is upstairs in the front…up/down a flight of exterior stairs. But we can walk out the back door at ground level. MUCH easier for access. Under is garage.
It’s so small that there is only the front area – living room/kitchen. Tiny bathroom. Immediately …as in: no hallway…are doors to two bedrooms. One bedroom has the back door. If trapped in the other bedroom, the window opens with the ground merely 3′ down. No screens or storm windows for winter. [Evac is the only reason that’s a good thing…hmph!] Even the bathroom has a ledge outside the window that could be navigated a few feet to ground with minimal balance.
Exits from garage are a regular door at one side and a big garage door on the other side. There is less than 700 sq ft upstairs or downstairs so distance to exit is minimal. Course opening a door, especially in the closed garage area would give fresh air to the fire …..so we’d need to hurry! Especially since the propane furnace is down there.
Shut-off valve to the propane is outside the house….something to remember to turn off. Shutting it off at the propane tank down the hill would be the next step in case the pipe melts past the shut-off in an extreme fire.
We’ve both got shoes at each door….. A whole lot of them so we might not get out the door with a matching set. 😉
One fire extinguisher near the pellet stove. Garden hose is near the faucet outside and if not too dangerous, could be rather quickly fed inside thru the bathroom window. Hadn’t thot about that.. Could be sprayed into kitchen/living room area from standing outside too….like a kitchen fire that hadn’t gotten out too badly out of control. But…with arid climate and the wood of this old house, it’s not really too likely that would be possible. More likely any fire would be Rip ‘n Run!
I was in one house fire long ago…with 2 other roommates. We DID use the hose up the stairs and the owner-roomie stood up there in the smoke. ‘Course she ended up in ER for smoke inhalation but did keep down the fire [tongue-groove paneling] to just the one bedroom. [Mine] Someone left a fan running too close to blowing window curtains during our Move-In day….we’d been in there less than 24 hrs. Fire chief took that half-melted fan to use as Exhibit A during Fire Prevention talks. We got verrrry lucky in that one since it was merrily burning upstairs while we were downstairs! No smoke detectors in those days. We didn’t even have our phone installed yet – met the neighbors in a “house warming party” no one could forget. They called fire dept – no 911 yet either.
When we hosted a close relative and her 8 yr old for a short time, we instructed/practiced with him — Get out immediately and stand next to the power pole. Stay there til someone gets you!!!
Plan for DH and I would be 1) ALERT the other, if home, while dialing 911. 2) ASSESS: can we do any Fire Suppression? 3) Get shoes on while doing #1 and #2 [I was bare foot during the Roommate Fire].
If YES to #2….DO IT! One of us would get the dog out to car. Then return to assist fire suppression…..constantly reassessing: Do we need to just get out?
If NO to #2…. Grab ourselves and dog and anything reasonably On-The-Way out the door/window. Get vehicles out the the way for fire trucks in the way in small driveway area.
Ah HA! We REALLY need the other set of keys to my vehicle hung at the back door. Phone handsets [no cell] are in various locations. —Just moved set of keys to back door on same hook as the small flashlight. AND a spare dog leash. Done!
If the fire’s really bad too quickly, DH and I and dog might have to just get out and go up the hill and make our way to those neighbors. Make a 911 call from there.
OldMtWoman ….hadn’t thot of Roommate Fire in years. Still in contact with both of them.