July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.

Tips to help prevent home fires

Letters to the Editor

To the editor:

A fire in our home last week has prompted us to share some valuable information with you all. We have a fireplace and faithfully have the chimney cleaned and inspected each year. Our fire resulted from bird nest in the attic next to, or on the outside of the chimney pipe! Still looking to see how they got in there but the point is, our chimney guy never checked the outside of the stack, or in the attic (btw he's not our chimney guy anymore)! We were truly blessed as we heard strange noises from the chimney and discovered the fire soon after it started. Another thirty minutes and we would have been in bed, which could have been a very bad situation. So here are some things we want you to know:

1. Yes Virginia, God is real and He was indeed watching over us. How else can you explain an attic fire in a one hundred plus year old house, with blown in newspaper insulation, burning for over thirty minutes without the whole thing going POOF?

2. If you have a fireplace or wood stove, please have the chimney checked every year. Not only cleaned on the inside but checked on the outside as well; including the attic.

3. If you have a surround on your chimney (basically a metal cover around the stack to make it look like a brick chimney) make sure birds and varmints cannot get into it to make their nest.

4. If you do not have smoke alarms in your attic get some, TODAY!

Look, we're not firefighters or an expert on this by any means, but if this info saves one family from the tragedy of a house fire then it was worth it.

Praise be to God for watching over us and thank you also to the Bryant Volunteer Fire Department which did an outstanding job! They acted very professionally and were able to get the fire out without pouring hundreds of gallons of water into the house! We are lucky to have these brave volunteers, ready to jump into action whenever we need them.

Dave and Dawn Milligan

Portland[[In-content Ad]]
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