I never thought about home safety much before 2006, especially fire safety.
Sure, I’d baby-proofed my house. We tested our smoke alarms when the clocks sprang forward or fell back. We had a fire extinguisher in the kitchen that we once had to use on fajita night. That was about the extent of my considerations for home safety.
Then, we got a 5 a.m. phone call while we were on vacation. My mother-in-law had been in declining health and living with her sister (a retired R.N.) and her family. A fire sparked in the night had destroyed the home down to the basement. It even melted the car to the driveway.
Worst of all, my mother-in-law’s heart gave out after she was carried out of the house by her brother-in-law. She died on the driveway as the volunteer fire squad tried to revive her after a heart attack.
Even as bad as it was to lose her, it really could have been worse. The family had been awakened from deep sleep by a smoke alarm. That working, well-placed alarm gave them the chance to escape a fast-moving fire, evacuating four people and even the dog. The house was lost, but that alarm saved everyone from being burned to death.
That night had many lessons for me. I discovered my own house did not have enough fire alarms. One upstairs and one downstairs are just not be enough. Also, while we checked and replaced the batteries, our alarms were too old. I had no idea the alarms themselves should be replaced after ten years.
I’m partnering with Kidde to bring you possibly the most important quiz you will ever take. I’m being compensated for this post, but all opinions are my own.
Is your family ready for an emergency? June is Home Safety Month, and Kidde wants you to have the information you need to protect your home and your family from a loss like we experienced.
Take this home safety quiz to test your safety knowledge. 
Kidde is donating 150 Kidde Worry-Free smoke alarms to the local fire department of the blogger with the most people taking the quiz. Kidde will also donate 100 alarms to the blogger in second place, and 50 smoke alarms to third place. You’ll need to complete the quiz and select “I’m Not a Supermom” from the dropdown menu.
I and my local volunteer fire department thank you in advance.
To sweeten the deal, one of you will win your own Kidde Worry-Free Bedroom Smoke Alarm. Just leave a comment below telling me what your final quiz score is.
Can you beat mine? I’m embarrassed to say I scored 40%! I should have read this helpful guide to home safety first—hint, hint.
I’ll draw a winner for the fire alarm on July 1 and email the same day. Make sure I have a way to contact you!
What a haunting reminder. I know it’s a combination of fear and unrelatability that makes us too casual about this. Thank you for this caring post.
I am SO sorry about your mother in law. I can only imagine how painful and scary the situation was all at once. Fires have always terrified me. I swear I must check to make sure my hair straightener and appliances are unplugged about 15 times before I leave the house.
Very, very personal story, that reminds me that fires can happen in ANY home!
As to the quiz, I missed the one about the acronym for how to use a fire extinguisher.
Other than that, I guess I’m a good quiz taker!
I am so sorry to learn of what you went through. Sharing your story may help many families!
That is terrifying. I am always freaked out about electrical issues- and for good reason!
I am so sorry about your mother in law. I hope that this post helps a lot of people. It’s an important reminder.
I am so sorry about your Mother In Law.We have plenty of fire alarms in our house,I never like to leave appliances on when they are not in use i am always scared that when we are out something may happen.
I’m so sad to hear about your mother in law 🙁
We discovered that even carbon monoxide detectors have expiration dates.. the living room one started going off every hour or so and scared us half to death!
That is so sad about your MIL, so very sad!!! That quiz taught me several things I never knew before!
That is so sad about your mother-in-law. I’m really sorry. We bought our house in 2008, and replaced all of our smoke detectors on both floors. We have two upstairs (and our house isn’t huge.)
Funny you should mention this. We live in a 4-story row home in the city, so in honor of home safety month, I bought a Kiddie window latched fire escape ladder for each floor! Nothing scares me more than fire in a row home. We have a sprinkler system too, which makes it better, but then can spread so fast from other homes.
I scored and 80% on the quiz. I was really happy that they gave the correct answers and explained them after you answered the questions. That was very helpful. Also… I need to replace some alarms now 🙂 – thanks for the reminder.
My aunts home burned when I was younger. So sad. They lost everything. We had friends go through the same thing a few years ago. So far, I have been lucky to not have to go through a fire. But , it does worry me. We have the county come out every year to winterize our home and they check smoke detectors and swap them out if faulty. They check everything. Over the summer we had some barns removed and a new one built. Because we ran electric to it we had to have our electricity checked. We had to change our box out because we live in such an old home it was not equipped for all our electronics to be plugged in. I feel a little safer. Good to know there are so many things you can do to protect your family.
I didn’t know you had to change the alarms themselves every ten years. I’m very sorry to hear about the fire in your family.
Fire safety is very important that is for sure. We had a fire in our home a few years back. Noone was home but the neighbors heard our alarm and called 911.
That is really scary and sad what happened to your mother in law. Fire safety and home safety is not to be taken lightly, especially where kids are concerned
i am so sorry to hear about your mother-in-law. It is very important to change out smoke alarms and its a great reminder to save a life one day. You just never know!
How sad! It’s a marvel that you can look at that night so positively.
My husband lived in an apartment that caught fire while he was asleep. He lost everything but his life and the pants he had on.
We had a similar experience to yours. When I was just out of grad school, on my way to a Halloween party, I get a frantic call from my mom saying our house was on fire. When I get there, it’s not just on fire, it was being completely consumed by 100 foot flames. We love everything, and it definitely taught me a lesson as well. We now have at least eight fire alarms in our current house. But I love the idea of this product. Will definitely be entering the giveaway!
Took the quiz, didn’t see my score, but did select your blog in the end and received the 100% completed page. Thanks!
Thank you for the reminder of being active in keeping my family safe. Especially with fireworks and grilling, people need to diligent about being safe
I’m so sorry. While house-hunting, that’s one of the things we checked was the number of alarms and their location to make sure they were enough. It’s so scary to know what can happen.
I’m so sorry for your loss. I didn’t know you needed to replace smoke alarms every ten years. I am sure mine is older than that. That is getting changed this weekend.
I am so sorry for your loss! Fires are a very scary thing, I am checking my smoke alarms today!
How heartbreaking! I’m so sorry for your loss. Our alarms are only about a year old, but I do need to check our fire ladder in case we’d get trapped upstairs.
Such a sad but important post. Being prepared saves lives. Sorry about your mom in law.
That is so sad about your MIL. I am glad everyone else got out okay. I have 2 Kidde alarms in my house right now. I probably should go check them.
Oh my goodness, I am so sorry to hear. Makes me want to check the alarms right now!
I am so sorry for your loss. We have multiple smoke alarms in our home.
Thank you for sharing such a personal story. I’m sure this will save many lives! I’m checking our smoke alarms ASAP!
Aww, I’m so sorry to hear about the fire and your mother in law, very sad and scary. Thanks for this reminder though. We have a fire alarm in almost every room but a lot of them we have taken down because the batteries needed replacing and I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. I’ll need to get on that.
What a powerful reminder for us all! I will be checking our fire alarms today!
Sorry to hear that happened. I am very paranoid about a fire happening so I check my batteries.
I’m so so sorry to read what happened! Fire safety is so important. We can’t take things for granted. 🙁
Sorry to hear about your mother in law. There is never a thing as being too safe. Thanks for the tips.
We have to have our house animal proofed lol. Our parrot likes to open cabinets and can unlock her own cage!
As for the fire it’s very important to make sure all of your alarms are set. My brother burnt down our house when I was in middle school because he was playing with fire and our smoke alarms were broke and we didn’t have enough warning.
What a sad reminder, but thank you for sharing your persona story. And your right, it could have been much worse. We check our alarms all the time.
First, I want to say I am so sorry for your loss. Second, it truly drove home the importance of having a working fire alarm. And lastly, thank you for sharing your story with us. {{Big hugs}}