The boys were tucked into their beds, and Felicia was just finishing up her shower. As I walked down the hallway, I could smell a burning odor. As I tried to determine where it was coming from, Addison called out from his room, “Mom, what is that burning smell?” Okay – so it wasn’t just me. Immediately, I called downstairs and asked Max, “Honey, do you smell that?” He said, “Yeah, it smells like burnt popcorn, but I’m not popping any.”
While he started searching, I tucked Felicia into bed because I knew she was exhausted and would fall right asleep, and there was no need for her to stay up while we tried to figure it out. I walked downstairs and started sniffing my way around the house trying to figure out where that smell was coming from. All of a sudden, Max opened the basement door and – whoa! – it was definitely coming from down there.
Both of us searched all over in the basement and couldn’t find the source. Since we didn’t see any smoke or fire, we decided to stop searching and just continue with the evening. However, when the smell continued to linger, I said, “Max, maybe we should call 9-1-1. It’s better to be safe than sorry.” He wasn’t really comfortable with that because we didn’t see any smoke or a fire, but he said he would just call the fire department for a consultation.
A fireman answered and, after a few minutes, said, “Well, let me send a guy over there just to check it out. It’s better to be safe than sorry.” 
Max hung up the phone, gave me the quick summary of the conversation and then headed upstairs to check on something. After about 5 minutes, he came racing down the stairs and said, “Did you hear that? Did you hear that fire engine siren? I hope that’s not for our house! The guy said he was just going to send a guy over to check things out!”
Well, sure enough, within the next 5-10 minutes, we had, not one, but 2 or 3 fire engines parked in front of our house, about eight smaller fire trucks in the street, and approximately 20 firemen getting all dressed up in their gear. Four of them entered the house – two searched the basement with Max and two searched the main floor and upstairs with me. Thankfully, the kids were sound asleep (although they were bummed the next morning to hear of all the excitement they missed out on!).
As we were searching upstairs, my group heard over the walkie-talkie, “We found the problem.” We headed downstairs and realized that the burning smell was coming from the dryer. There was a large build-up of lint in the back part of the dryer and, somehow, a spark had started the lint on fire. Thankfully, the dryer had turned off and the fire was out.
The firemen were very reassuring in saying that we did the right thing. They knew of countless stories of people not calling when they had a burning smell in their house, then going to bed and waking up later with the garage burned down. (They did make one suggestion though – any type of burning smell is considered an emergency and should be reported by calling 9-1-1.)
Thank you, Lord, for keeping us safe!
I lift up my eyes to the hills– where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip– he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you– the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm– he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. –Psalm 121 (NIV)
Your turn to share: Have you ever had a house fire?
April 29, 2008 at 10:14 am
Kristin, you are indeed lucky! I think your luck stemmed from the fact that the dryer shut down before a major fire developed. Each year there are over 12,000 dryer related fires in this country alone resulting in hundreds of injuries and millions of dollars in damages. It is very important to ensure your dryer and vent are cleaned on a yearly basis to prevent this sort of thing from happening.
April 29, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Hey what a coincidence!! Our dryer started on fire last week! Nice huh? Peter decided to do some handy work which later int he week led to a flame coming out the back of the dryer! I can laugh now but it was very scary! Glad you are all safe and sound! Cant wait to see you all in a couple weeks!!!
April 29, 2008 at 1:57 pm
May 10, 2000 it is almost the anniversay of our fire.There was a major lightening storm and a huge “close by” strike. A few minutes later Nathaniel came downstairs and said ” I know that I over react sometimes….but I think that I smell smoke.” I had him climb into bed with me and Greg went to look around. Neither of us smelled anything and the alarms weren’t going off. In 2 seconds Greg called that there was smoke filling the upstairs. Cade stood petrified at the steps and was unable to move, Quinn was sleeping soundly. If Nathaniel had not awakened we would have lost all 3 to smoke inhalation. We rounded everyone up called 911 and started to head out the back door. I remembered from school that you should touch the door first before opening it and sure enough the door was hot~ we headed out the kitchen door. We drove next door to Greg’s sister’s house. It was FOREVER (20 minutes) before we heard the fire alarm go off in town~ they had been hit by lightening too and the automatic alarm was knocked out, someone had to go ring it by hand. We were blessed in that the fire didn’t start until the firemen opened the door, but then it was a backdraft fire that took off. If we had opened the door originally we would have lost the whole house. We did lose the complete back room and that was enough to keep us living at my sister-in law’s for 2 weeks! God was with us the whole way, and we are still tearful and grateful every time we think about it!
April 29, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Kristin,
Your story reminded me of when I was a little girl & the pipe to our wood stove in the livingroom fell off & the flames were shooting toward the ceiling. My grandmother sat in a rocking chair with my baby brother & refused to leave the house. Her response was “I’m not taking this baby out in the cold!” There were firemen going in & out of the house, all the windows & doors were open and she just sat there & rocked him throughout all the chaos. My mom, sister & I were frantic but she was as calm as can be. Too bad your kids missed all the excitement! I’m glad your family is safe.
April 29, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Kristen,
I am reminded of the house fire we had when I was a child. I guess we actually had three. Two from a plugged up chimney and one “real” one from faulty electrical in the bathroom. I remember my mom home alone with us kids, as my dad was out of town working and she did not know what to do with the smell. We did not see any fire at the time. She called the local fire department. Same story as you with lots of trucks and men. There was a small fire in the attic from wires. It reminds me to always look above for guidance and help. Even when we don’t know what to do, He gives us the answer. Our fire started above and it reminds me that we had to look up to find the problem and solution—help from the Lord. Thanks for reminding me of that and glad to hear all is well with you, your family and your house! God Bless, Heather
April 30, 2008 at 9:12 am
That’s scary! I’m glad that you and your family are okay. The Lord was definetely watching out for you!
Chad and I once attended a seminar on fire safety at the Holiday Inn. We couldn’t believe how many everyday things starts fires. It was especially frightening to watch the “fast burning” fires on video and how a couple lost their home in 10 minutes!!
We wanted to buy all their company’s fire safety equipment, but couldn’t afford it. We work with what we have and trust God for the rest!! Praise God you were all unharmed.
May 1, 2008 at 10:24 pm
I am so glad all is ok!
The night before I went into labor with Tim, as I was going to bed, the light from the moon was at the right angle to catch the smoke coming from the seams of the stainless steel chimney. There was a fire in the wood furnace and had I not seen it right then, I would have been sound asleep and the house burned down! I never used it again!!
May 5, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Hmmm…No fire stories here, but my sister had an interesting situation once. She was running a day care back when this happened. She was opening a box with a pair of scissors cut herself pretty badly. She didn’t have a car to take the daycare kids with her, but she needed medical help. She called the hospital and they said they would sned someone over. Within 5 minutes she hears all these sirens and such, and doesn’t a cop car, an ambulance, and two fire trucks stop in front of her house with lights flashing. She tells it like this, “I walked down my driveway to meet them and said ‘All I needed was a little help with this booboo.’” I always find that part quite funny. Anyway, I am really glad to hear that God kept your family safe from fire. And thanks for the tip that smelling something burning counts as an emergency. I won’t hesitate to call to keep my family safe.
XOXO
Joce
May 8, 2008 at 9:33 pm
On my birthday three years ago, my childhood baby sitter’s house burned down. Thankfully she was at church when it happened. The community rallied around her and she now had a mobile home where her house once was. I’ll never forget driving toward my house after my birthday dinner. My dad saw the smoke first and at one point we thought it might be their house. As we got closer we figured out whose house it was. I’ve never been that close to a burning structure and don’t want to again.
I am thankful you were unharmed and don’t ever hesitate to call the fire/police departments. That what they are there for.