The Real Fire Story

We had an eventful week.

It’s 5:00PM on Monday, and Carol is getting the living room ready for carpet cleaners scheduled to come the next day in preparation for Mercy coming home on Wednesday. The living room window is open because it is a nice day. She removes the harp and overstuffed chair, and puts the coffee table on the sofa. She lifts the green curtain ( it’s a swag type of thing that went down the two sides of the window and went through holders on the top on each side and swooped down a little between the holders), and put them on top of the two lights we had in the living room (obviously they were off). The light on the right is moved to the wood floor and is a pole type lamp with a glass shade and little beads hanging down. The one on the left is a pole lamp with a glass bowl and is in the corner next to dried flowers on the wall.

She proceeds to vacuum the living room, when after about 30 seconds she smells something burning and then the fire alarms go off (we have two types- one wired with the house and one that is wireless to the alarm system). She turns and sees the drape on the left side has caught fire (we have no idea how the light got on- perhaps when she began vacuuming—normally she would have put the drapes on the piano—no warning from the spirit, nothing), fallen off the lamp and dropped little burning pieces across the carpet in front of the window. She grabs a large piece that is burning and throws it out the front door, leaving the door open. She then runs past the baby, who is sitting in the high chair in the breakfast nook watching this whole thing, grabs a towel and pats down all the burning spots on the carpet.

At this point she thinks it is all out and this is a major inconvenience- she has lost her drapes and has major burn holes in the carpet.

The alarms are still blaring, and so she walks to the back window, and opens it to air out the house and get the alarms to stop making noise. Turning back to the living room she sees the left side drapes are now a column of fire, virtually floor to ceiling.

At this point, she determines things are out of control. She unhooks the baby and grabs him, looks down in the family room, and spends a minute or so trying to shoo Skye (our 7 yr old Scottish Terrier) out the back door, doesn’t see Missy (our 10+ year old Lhasa Apse who is terrified of smoke alarm noise) so assumes she is outside. Of course, shooing Skye outside accomplishes little, as she can come back in the doggie door. Carol grabs the phone and tries to dial 911, but the phone is not working (probably was busy dialing the alarm company), so she then runs out the front door with the baby in arm (weighing about 25lbs). Later she indicates she never once thought of the fire extinguisher, or getting any important papers, etc.-which the fire department told here was a good thing.

She runs next door to the Adams, bangs on the door, no response. She then runs catty corner to the Rees’ (thinking she is pretty sure the Dimicks aren’t home-which was right, they appear just before me), bangs on the door- again no response. She then puts the baby down on their front lawn and runs across the street- bangs on this last door- wondering what she was going to do if no one answers this door. Fortunately a somewhat bewildered teenager answers the door to be told: “My house is on fire, please call 911!!!” He dials 911 and hands the phone to Carol to talk with them.

The usual conversation between 911 operators and stressed individuals takes place - questions, trying to keep them on the phone, etc, while Carol is walking back to the Rees front lawn to be with the baby. 911 asked if Carol can see smoke- to which she answers “no, and I think it may be calming down a little bit”. At that very moment, black smoke billows out the window, and fire can be seen through the door and Carol is faced with reality- before it was all surreal- “this can’t be happening to me”.

Meanwhile, 20 miles north, I am at work when I get a call from Patience-
“what’s going on at the house?”
“Why?”
“The alarm company just called and told me there is a fire at the house”.
“Naw, there must be smoke or something from the kitchen”.
“Well, they told me the fire department has confirmed there is a fire”!

At this point I literally stand up and look out my window on the 13th floor of the Wells Fargo building, down the valley to see if I can see smoke! I hang up with Patience and try to call home- four times, each time being forwarded into voice mail.

Back in South Jordan, a police officer has arrived, asks Carol if she is the owner of the home that is on fire and begins putting cones down to block off the street. 911 hangs up, and Carol calls me on my cell phone.

My cell phone rings, and I pick it up, noticing it is a number I don’t recognize, and I answer it- and hear Carol in her most terrified (and breathless from running) voice saying: “Bill, the living room is on fire—oh, here come the fire trucks” and CLICK the phone goes dead. I’m standing there looking at the phone and trying to grasp what is going on. I go next door and tell my partner my house is on fire (his eyes get as big as dollars) and I am going home. I go back in my office, stand there for a minute, turn off a couple of lights, and then think- “what am I doing here” and grab my briefcase and run out the door.

I’m now driving down I-215 at 70+ dodging in and out of traffic in my red mustang—just hoping a Utah Highway Patrol officer stops me and asks me “where’s the fire” so I can answer him!

Meanwhile, you have to picture what is going on in our cul-de-sac. There are two pumper trucks with their full fire crew, an EMT truck with its crew. The police officer is directing traffic, and overhead there is the LiveFive helicopter circling our home broadcasting “Breaking News”. It is the helicopter that draws the most attention from the neighborhood, as well as the concern the sirens were for the Adams little girl. Carol is being checked out by EMT- blood sugar, blood pressure, pulse- signing forms, etc. The fireman bring Skye back out of the house, and Missy from the backyard- the two of them are kind of running around the cul-de-sac. Carol is still trying to recover from the running around with a 25lb baby on her hip, the adrenaline, etc.

The fire people have asked several questions, turned off the power and the gas, and sprayed the fire for several seconds to put it out. We believe the black smoke and flames came when the left side of the drapes was pulled through the left holder and fell next to the right side, fully igniting it until it burned out. All that was probably left for the fire department (who were probably disappointed to see that the house was not on fire, just a couple of small smoldering pieces) a little bit of clean up and the investigation, paperwork.

Back to me- I’m trying to talk with 3 of our children, and the insurance company- all while driving in rush hour traffic and getting behind every idiot, lane cop and old lady in Utah- using various curse words liberally.

Spencer arrives at the house, followed by Jared, and then me. The scene before me is a pumper truck parked outside the cul-de-sac, police have picked up their cones and left, the other pumper truck is in the middle of the cul-de-sac with about 15 fire people standing around- perhaps getting ready to start a nerf football game. Carol is sitting on the Adam’s lawn, with her back against the cinder block wall, filling out a report for the fire department. I am talking to the insurance company, who is now asking me questions as part of a phone interview (I am not even allowed to go into the house to answer any of their questions!).

The fire people finish their investigation and show us the damage. Surprisingly (to me anyway) there is no water. There is smoke and ash EVERYWHERE- on ceilings, in picture frames, in shut cabinet doors, on Carol’s doll collection, EVERYWHERE. The smoke alarms are on the front porch, the CO alarms are beeping because the power is off. The alarm system smoke detectors are still hooked up, apparently the fire people thought they were more CO alarms.


Bottom line result:

Living room carpet is burned in a dozen spots, but didn’t really ignite.
Black soot on both sides of the window.
Hardwood Entry floor is severely burned.
Both lamps and the vacuum cleaner have various parts burned, melted, etc.
Smoke and ash throughout the house, mostly in our bedroom and closet.

The fire people turn the power on, and leave. No comments about what to do with the gas (I turned it back on, lit the pilot lights) and we drove over to the Marriott Residence, and I walked into the lobby and asked if they had a room. We are now staying there for the next three weeks likely. Total damage and repair costs are close to $30K. Who knows how many years have been added to Carol’s (and mine) age.

The what ifs:

· Carol hadn’t put the curtain on the light pole
· The dried flowers got involved
· Carol hadn’t moved the chair (personally I think we would have seen a fully involved house by the time the fireman arrived)
· I’d been on the way home earlier and been able to support Carol better
· The baby had been asleep upstairs, necessitating far more time
· Carol had tried to fight the fire herself, using the extinguisher
· Mercy had been home and therefore been one more person to try to get out of the house

The Lawrence Family

The Lawrence Family blog has been created to detail the current events and history of the William Tilden and Carolyn Jean Lawrence Family. The blog will be open to each family to co-author the story of The Lawrence Family.