Incredibly Proud Prepper Moment!

Posted by rtice001@reddit | preppers | View on Reddit | 78 comments

Holy shit y'all. It happened. Everything came together and my preps worked well without me even knowing.

My wife called me a few hours ago. I had bad service and couldn't hear her. Tried calling back but no answer. 10 minutes later she called and said there was a fire 7 doors down. We live in row houses (town houses, or connected housing).

She smelled something as she was getting in the car with our newborn. Neighbors started coming outside to see the fire and a local volunteer firefighter yelled if anyone had an extinguisher. Everyone was mulling it over, not knowing, but I've drilled this with my wife several times. She knew right where they were and grabbed 2 and gave them to him.

The smoke was intensifying so she packed up baby and took off- bug out bag already in the car. When she got to our designated safe location, she called and told me what happened. I shot over and made sure the house was closed up and safe. I talked to the volunteer firefighter and he said our 2 extinguishers were the only 2 that worked out of 5 that neighbors gave him. I check them yearly.

Additionally, wife was so frazzled she left the baby bottle at the house. But we packed dried formula, water, and bottles in the car just in case. So she was able to make up formula and feed the baby with no issues. Feeling like a huge win for my prepping.

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DaveyAllenCountry@reddit

That's good practice! Like a soft alert. All the feelings and choices were real in the moment but it turned out to be no threat. Great job to everyone involved including the firefighters haha

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unpolishedboots@reddit

Thanks, this made me realize we do not have a fire extinguisher in the house. Which is so obviously a huge miss. Going to get one tomorrow. 🫡

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ThatDarnFarm@reddit

There's also the spray cans that are smaller and easier to use. They won't take the place of having an extinguisher in the house, but you can keep those in more places.

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Aggravating_Lab_9218@reddit

I got smaller sized ones and showed my little kids how to use it as a team for pulling the tan by holding it to the ground with their feet, angling the nozzle, etc.

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andyareyouok@reddit

Qe have one of those. Fits right into one of the drawers under the cutlery with the napkins and stuff so we actually see it fairly regularly so we both know exactly where it is when a fire starts. Had it under the sink with cleaning stuff but when I asked my wife where it is she didn't know so moved it to a more obvious location that gets opened at least twice a day to create familiarity.

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last_rights@reddit

I think I have four extinguishers within ten feet of the stove.

Under the sink, in the jar cabinet, at the top of the basement stairs, and behind the office door.

There's another one at the bottom of the basement, one in the garage, one in my bedroom, and two more I'm trying to find mounting spots for that just hang out in their boxes in my office.

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Patrick1441@reddit

You should consider getting a fire blanket for your kitchen too. It’s the best tool for oil or grease fires.

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Sink_Stuff@reddit

good job. The best thing you can do is two fold. First, go over what happened again and think of what you missed or what could have been done better. Second, write everything down in a story form and tell it to people. Your story might convince other people to start getting prepared for things. This is the worst thing in our world right now is the crap is hitting the fan day by day and people are not preparing for it. Tell your story and hopefully it will convince the next husband, wife, father and mother to start getting prepared for bad things.

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Greywolfuu@reddit

Awesome 💯

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Scared-Tea-8911@reddit

Amazing!! So glad it worked out for you guys, and I’m sure she felt better as well knowing that you two had a plan in place.

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Docella@reddit

Proud of your wife. Good on you as well. Life is better when we can provide for ourselves and our family

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tiravalo23@reddit

I began my prepping.... journey..?... obsession..? Eccentricity maybe...a couple years before Covid. Panic buyers and mandatory business closure caused random shortages around town. Our friends came straight to our house for toilet paper, coffee and other things. I was so happy that being prepared worked so well I began my serious devotion to prepping soon after the shutdowns ended.

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Wide_Perspective_724@reddit

My pepper motto. I would rather have it and not need it, then need it and not have it. Sounds like you were ready and possibly saved the day for everyone….with help from the FD of coarse.

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ltpko@reddit

I would be interested to hear your wife’s perspective.

I think a lot of people forget that there needs to be a designated place to go. Hopefully your story triggers that for people.

Congrats for surviving Tuesday on a Monday.

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rtice001@reddit (OP)

I was curious to hear her perspective too, I poked around and asked a few questions. Her initial reaction after I said 'you did a great job and I'm proud of you' was quizzical. "I didn't do anything?"

I said I disagreed- you helped our neighbors by acting quickly to find fire suppression and you protected yourself and our baby by hitting the road asap and getting to our safe spot. And communicated effectively the whole time.

I think I'm way more jazzed up about this than her, but I think she's acknowledging she did lots of good stuff.

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auburnflyer@reddit

Can I ask about your “safe spot?” What criteria do you use to identify it?

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electricsister@reddit

Have you also heard that people are suggesting to have a safe word because of AI ? For instance, if you got a phone call saying "we've got your child do such and such" and you may say well let me speak to them and because of AI they can make it sound like them.😪 In that situation you want to have a safe word. That's the only situation I remember the example of but there were several.

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SquirrelSE@reddit

Another situation is a locked door, no peephole/dark outside, safe word before you ever unlock and let in your friend/family member who’s coming back from checking out a threat/noise. This was taught when I was younger both a safe word and an alarm word/not safe.

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rtice001@reddit (OP)

The in-laws house. It's located on running water. What they do for a living is worth having during a long-term survival situation. It's relatively defensible- good field of vision on nearly all sides. There are freedom dispensers there and my father-in-law has similar ideas to me. I think I'm pretty darn lucky to have this as an option.

The other one is literally just a hill and the highest point in case of a catastrophic flood.

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wolf_management@reddit

"freedom dispensers" is an interesting euphemism

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NotQuiteDeadYetPhoto@reddit

Have been in a flash flood- getting to the highest ground within LOS is critical. I had exactly 30 seconds to figure out why the earth was shaking/weird sounds.

Then 10 seconds to hear a roar.

about 5 seconds when the water /debris came around the corner of the slot canyon.

Those videos of people watching tsunamis come in resonate. Your brain has to be prepped to move the moment a trigger happens, because otherwise you've got a minute to live.

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beth_at_home@reddit

Congratulations, she might still have "Mommy Brain".

I think it will hit her later, so remind her again in a few days about how great she performed.

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Fabulous_Celery_1817@reddit

I love that you acknowledged her following that plan. Plans only work if everyone participates. Congratulations to you and her for this awesome win 🙌🏼🙌🏼 that could have turned out badly especially in a connected houses situation.

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Palavras@reddit

I was thinking about this today, but how do you designate a place to go? It seems like it would depend so much on what the disaster is.

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Unlikely-Ad3659@reddit

Mine used to be a local church, it was up high, made of stone, had an outside water tap , was clear of vegetation around it and the warden lived nearby for the keys if it was locked, it rarely was. I guessed I wouldn't be the only one to go there, which is also important.

It seemed the most disaster proof location I knew, it had survived 600 years so far.

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rtice001@reddit (OP)

Luckily for us, my in-laws are close and have some good resources. That's an easy pick.

We have a loose backup plan to that but it requires communication if we're separated.

The only other solid plan we have is in case of catastrophic flooding- the highest point within 20 miles of us.

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ExtremeIncident5949@reddit

Good for you

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ENMFC@reddit

Why the heck did the volunteer firefighters not have extinguishers? We live in a fairly poor part of the country and all the local departments are volunteer only with maybe the exception of the cheif and assistant. All the responding vehicles still have several extinguishers on board.

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rtice001@reddit (OP)

He was just hanging at his girlfriends house (my neighbor)- he wasn't responding in the traditional sense.

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Hotmailet@reddit

Came here to ask the same thing and surprised I had to scroll so far to see this comment.

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electricsister@reddit

Loooove it! I have three in my home and one in car. I can't believe I raised my five kids to adulthood without ever having one. What an idiot. 😬 I am so happy you and her were and are prepared! Yayyyy!!!!

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Adorable-War-991@reddit

Sounds like basic good repetitions/practice won the day. So simple, but super effective.

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Intelligent-King6234@reddit

I came here to say I’m proud of you too! This is a huge accomplishment. You inspired me to prepare. I only have myself, my partner and our dog. But your preparedness made me rethink my priorities for prepping go bags.

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OxManRox@reddit

Great job OP! Keep up the good work!

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Maguffin42@reddit

Have you practiced with your fire extinguishers? One of the hospitals I worked at had every single employee get a practice session with an extinguisher and a real fire, all overseen by a couple guys from the fire department. Some people don't understand to go for the base of the fire, and haven't experienced fire's ability to jump.

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zem0117@reddit

Great job, you should be proud! Keep this story in your back pocket if anyone tries to call your prepping crazy

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SweetAlyssumm@reddit

The Girl Scout motto used to be "Be Prepared." It might still be. Sounds like it worked for you.

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DTB555@reddit

It is still for the Boy Scouts so I’d bet GS has it still

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zencraft@reddit

How do you test a fire extinguisher?

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very_mechanical@reddit

Start a fire. See if the extinguisher puts it out. If it does, the extinguisher was good.

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carloswam@reddit

🫡Your report is sensational. Do you authorize me to post on the blog, giving you credit?

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rtice001@reddit (OP)

Sure thing

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bigbadDeadpool@reddit

Congrats! This was an absolute joy to read. Glad your family is safe and you were able to help out!

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DeafHeretic@reddit

I have three in the house, not including the little itsy bitsy spray can sized.

I have four in the shop - two mounted on walls (I need to mount the others). I have one in each vehicle.

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recyclingloom@reddit

If this was me then (1)text messages help better to say “I’m having to leave the house due to a fire on our block.” and (2)you can keep trying to resend the text message if the network is clogged up due to people trying to use the internet, make phone calls, or send text messages all at the same time.

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rekabis@reddit

Teamwork makes the dream work! Congrats for having the plan come together like a well-oiled machine!

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NotQuiteDeadYetPhoto@reddit

There are no less than 6 extinguishers in my house- 3 within 3 leaps from the kitchen, 2 near the fireplace, and one at the front door. Garage has 2 more.

My FIL made a comment once about it. They left a candle burning on a glass table years later, it broke/shattered, set the room on fire, no smoke alarms.

You'd think paranoia to keep his daughter and grand kids alive would be respected- maybe it was, maybe it wasn't, but I don't get the 'wow that's a lot' comment anymore.

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MoreRopePlease@reddit

I didn't know you had to test them! I have one in my kitchen, I figured they were good forever... Thanks for this reminder.

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rodgeramicita@reddit

If you get the small 2 pack ones you find at most hardware stores, it’s usually cheaper to replace than test them

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ThatDarnFarm@reddit

It is also good to turn on yard sprinklers when there's a fire nearby. May not help townhouses but could help others.

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ResponsibleBank1387@reddit

Just love when plan all comes together.

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Fat_Arm_Friday@reddit

Am I the only one hearing the A-Teams theme song after reading that?

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flannelheart@reddit

You are not

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denverpigeon@reddit

Excellent to hear your work helped and (hopefully) reassured your wife that your work is valuable

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SignificantGreen1358@reddit

This also goes to show that your preps helped save the neighborhood. Your equipment enabled a volunteer firefighter to address the problem before it became a disaster. A community came together to save itself before the professional emergency responders showed up, and the damage was minimal. Your wife, with minimal training, knew where the equipment was and acted decisively. Awesome example!

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literarycatnip@reddit

Awesome! You inspired me to check our extinguishers, too... I haven't done that lately.

This post is so inspiring!

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Complex_Material_702@reddit

Hell yeah man! Nice work. I always say that fire extinguishers should be everyone’s first prep.

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sinkmyteethin@reddit

Wow well done dude!

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OnTheEdgeOfFreedom@reddit

This guy preps.

If only more people did.

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Nearby_Impact_8911@reddit

This is awesome

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Ecstatic_Pepper_7200@reddit

You should feel great about the effort you put into installing your preps. This event could have imprinted negatively on your baby if it had gone badly. Sir you are an amazing protector!

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Individual_Run8841@reddit

This is the Way

Well prepared

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Sufficientlybased_@reddit

Incredible! Textbook example of why we prep. You didn't just prepare gear, you trained your family, and that made all the difference

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Porcflite@reddit

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

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Jazzlike_Ad7734@reddit

Congratulations! A job Well done by you and your wife! I love it when a plan comes together 🧯🚙🧳

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AppleCookieRose@reddit

Good job. This is what we prep for, not just long term disasters.

Daughter texted about 10 years ago. "Other than the cat and computer should I grab anything else to load into the car? The neighbors house 4 doors down is on fire."

No. Everything is already in the car and leave the computer.

She grabbed the computer anyway :) The fire was put out quickly. I was proud of her for remaining calm and texting. I was proud of my preps for keeping evacuation stress free.

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barascr@reddit

Know that feeling, funny enough, when you're prepared you don't even notice the sense of emergency since you already have a plan, unless it's a serious situation.

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nerdstim@reddit

Wtfg!

"I love it when a plan comes together!"

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IamNana71@reddit

Great job!

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CivilCerberus@reddit

I'm proud to say that a fire extinguisher is such a simple, underrated prep that I am wholly prepared for thanks to mine/my partners work life. We get the ones we toss out yearly at work (for paperwork reasons) and test them and get them for keeping at home. We have one in the kitchen, one near our water heater/dryer, and one that's attached outside under our awning. I'm glad this worked out and that your wife and baby were okay! I hope the neighbors can recover okay as well.

PASS training might also be good to have for your wife/self if you're unaware of it! We trained our kid on PASS (Pull the pin, Aim the nozzle, Squeeze the trigger, Sweep the fire!) and it gives me a little bit of internal calm knowing that she has the skills to use it if need be. We used to train the newbies at my work by lighting a cinder block on fire in our dirt lot and then having them use an extinguisher to put it out. Takes the chaos out of it, and gives them the muscle memory to train without the immediate danger.

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