alchasteen's Profile

This is actually a very timely post for me as my next door neighbor's house caught fire on Saturday. I live in a row house on a quiet street in a suburban Washington DC neighborhood, and a passerby noticed the smoke coming from the neighbor's house on Saturday afternoon. He knocked on my door and that of another neighbor and said "your neighbor's house is on fire!" Talk about startling! Fortunately the neighbor was not home at the time, so she (and everyone on our row) were not harmed. But one of her cats died from smoke. The cause was a faulty furnace, which she had been telling her landlord for weeks had a problem. This incident has definitely caused me to reevaluate the safety of our home and emergency plans. As a cat owner myself, I am especially concerned about the safety of my pets when I am not home. I have already learned a couple of things from this experience: 1. Know your neighbors, at least enough to know how many people live there, their names, and if they have any pets. When the firefighters arrived on the scene, they wanted to know who, if anyone, was inside, and we were able to tell them. 2. Make sure at least one of your neighbors has a phone number to reach you in case of an emergency, and if you know and trust your neighbors well enough, give them a key to your house to get in if necessary. We knew the neighbor wasn't home at the time, and another neighbor had a phone number to reach her and tell her to come home at once. 3. If you live in a situation where your landlord is not responsive to maintenance issues, especially those that could pose a safety risk, contact the appropriate authorities or get out! It's a lucky twist of fate the fire at my neighbor's house happened when she wasn't home, otherwise she might have died of smoke inhalation had it happened at night and she was home asleep. It may be expensive to break a lease, but it's not worth risking your life if the situation is potentially dangerous.