Homeowners Built Themselves a Coffin

Reporting From On Scene:

Incident:  Trailer Fire

Just a quick post to share this experience about the other day's small trailer fire.  We got dispatched to a fire on the side of a mobile home and upon arrival, we found a small amount of smoke and fire outside the main entrance to a residential trailer/mobile home as well. The fire was small enough that we managed to knock most of it down with a water can before the hose-line was even charged.

As we made entrance through the main doorway, there was quite a bit of smoke in the mobile home. We saw children's toys tossed around the living room, so we immediately went to the back of the trailer and searched the one crib and beds for people, which they were all apparently outside and counted for.  In an attempt to clear some of the heat and smoke, I went to the kitchen window and tried to open it. No go.  That damn thing wouldn't budge an inch!  I went over to the living room window but couldn't open that window either because the window crank was missing.  I pushed hard against the frame and noticed that the entire window appeared to possibly be glued shut.  In the midst of me pushing, I pushed hard enough that my hand broke through the glass, so we had a small vent hole now although my intention was never to cause that damage.

As we walked through the rest of the mobile home, the guys outside finished their search for fire extension, we noticed that every single window in that entire trailer was securely glued shut using possibly rubber cement.  To begin with, there was only 1 entrance/exit in this trailer (the second entrance/exit was blocked by a huge entertainment unit) and the windows were very small and high off the floor.  By gluing all of them shut the homeowners essentially built themselves a coffin. 

This family clearly needed a refresher course on the importance of developing and practicing a fire escape plan.  They certainly did not have two ways out of every room or even the trailer.  

That evening, they were just damn lucky.

╔════════════════╗
    HoseMonkey
╚════════════════╝