Sunrise with a house fire.
Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 12:41 pmGidday,
This is a nice friendly reminder to make sure your smoke alarms are working properly.
This morning I was up @ 4:30 to do a sunrise shoot @ Turrimetta Beach (Sydney’s Northern Beaches) with my mate Eric. After a fairly ordinary sunrise we were sitting in the reserve above the beach @ approximately 6:45am when I’m thinking to myself I can smell smoke, like a wood burning fire place. I think that’s a little strange as it’s nice and warm outside.
A couple of minutes later 3 girls (approx 9-15 yrs old) in their pajama’s come and stand at the top of their drive way looking at the house. We just thought they had a slumber party or something and were up early, there weren’t panicking or looking distressed. We kept talking then noticed smoke coming from the roof at the back of the property, then we see the mum upstairs running around and opening windows. By this time the smoke is getting thicker.
It finally clicks that this is a house fire. My car was parked right in front of this house, so I start running, dump my camera bag and tripod in the boot and ask the girls what’s happening. They say there is a fire in the house. At this stage the mum runs out the front door, dumps stuff on the lawn and goes back in. I run into the house after her, silly I know but if she’s going in them I am as well.
I follow her into the room downstairs where the fire is burning. There is a patch of the ceiling about 2m x 2m burnt through to the rafters and on fire. She chucks me a cello and I carry that out-side. Then go back for more and carry out another instrument in its case. By this time she has disappeared. I call to Eric outside that it’s on fire, he runs around the back and gets the hose. I try and open the balcony door but it’s locked and can't unlock it, as it is almost directly under the fire, so I didn’t want to stand there too long. I run to the next room (the laundry) and find a bucket, fill it with water and throw it on the ceiling. It doesn’t do much as you would expect.
I then run up-stairs and see if I can chuck water from the top down. There is only smoke and no flames. I go back downstairs and fill the bucket again and have another go from underneath. I run back to the laundry and see Eric has the hose on the balcony and I say turn it on as I pull open a window that is slightly ajar. The hose breaks at the tap, the hose came out of the orange socket that attaches to the tap. Eric tries to hold the hose in the joint but I’m getting very little pressure to get it through the fly screen.
At his stage the fire brigade arrived and took over.
Everyone was out safe. I spoke to the mother outside. She is watching the fire brigade do their job and noticeably in shock. It’s not a good way to be woken up. But they did have smoke detectors and they were working. To my untrained eye I'd say it was an electrical fault as the fire was in the floor space between upstairs / downstairs.
Please make sure your smoke detectors are working and that hoses in the yard are in a good state and work. We may not have done that much with a house hose but everything helps.
Cheers
This is a nice friendly reminder to make sure your smoke alarms are working properly.
This morning I was up @ 4:30 to do a sunrise shoot @ Turrimetta Beach (Sydney’s Northern Beaches) with my mate Eric. After a fairly ordinary sunrise we were sitting in the reserve above the beach @ approximately 6:45am when I’m thinking to myself I can smell smoke, like a wood burning fire place. I think that’s a little strange as it’s nice and warm outside.
A couple of minutes later 3 girls (approx 9-15 yrs old) in their pajama’s come and stand at the top of their drive way looking at the house. We just thought they had a slumber party or something and were up early, there weren’t panicking or looking distressed. We kept talking then noticed smoke coming from the roof at the back of the property, then we see the mum upstairs running around and opening windows. By this time the smoke is getting thicker.
It finally clicks that this is a house fire. My car was parked right in front of this house, so I start running, dump my camera bag and tripod in the boot and ask the girls what’s happening. They say there is a fire in the house. At this stage the mum runs out the front door, dumps stuff on the lawn and goes back in. I run into the house after her, silly I know but if she’s going in them I am as well.
I follow her into the room downstairs where the fire is burning. There is a patch of the ceiling about 2m x 2m burnt through to the rafters and on fire. She chucks me a cello and I carry that out-side. Then go back for more and carry out another instrument in its case. By this time she has disappeared. I call to Eric outside that it’s on fire, he runs around the back and gets the hose. I try and open the balcony door but it’s locked and can't unlock it, as it is almost directly under the fire, so I didn’t want to stand there too long. I run to the next room (the laundry) and find a bucket, fill it with water and throw it on the ceiling. It doesn’t do much as you would expect.
I then run up-stairs and see if I can chuck water from the top down. There is only smoke and no flames. I go back downstairs and fill the bucket again and have another go from underneath. I run back to the laundry and see Eric has the hose on the balcony and I say turn it on as I pull open a window that is slightly ajar. The hose breaks at the tap, the hose came out of the orange socket that attaches to the tap. Eric tries to hold the hose in the joint but I’m getting very little pressure to get it through the fly screen.
At his stage the fire brigade arrived and took over.
Everyone was out safe. I spoke to the mother outside. She is watching the fire brigade do their job and noticeably in shock. It’s not a good way to be woken up. But they did have smoke detectors and they were working. To my untrained eye I'd say it was an electrical fault as the fire was in the floor space between upstairs / downstairs.
Please make sure your smoke detectors are working and that hoses in the yard are in a good state and work. We may not have done that much with a house hose but everything helps.
Cheers
I guess people do crazy things in a stressful/panicked situation. 
