Disability. Fire. Escape Plan.
Blog by Jill Rose, Videographer, Center for Family Involvement
Most people mentally paint the walls and arrange their furniture when they buy a new house. Not me. I’m too busy planning my escape plan in case of a fire.
I grew up with a father who was a firefighter. Whether he’s aware of it or not, he’s planted the seed of terror in me. My biggest fear in life, without question, is a house fire.
When I drove around with my dad on any given day while growing up, he would point to a series of roofs and say, “what were they thinking with these roofs, the fire will just jump from one house to the next.” Or he might point to a dirty rain gutter, old wood siding, or some other flammable material and shake his head with a sad, slightly judgy look on his face. I know what he was thinking – if only these people could see what I’ve seen, they would immediately fix it.
Before we bought our current townhouse, I made sure there were fire walls between each house. Even after I was assured firewalls were indeed there; I needed to lay my eyes on them. So I located similar townhouses that were under construction and closely inspected the firewalls. It wasn’t until that moment I was ready to buy. I knew that I could rest easy, not worrying about my neighbors’ potential habits of leaving their stoves on or falling asleep with a lit cigarette.
With firewalls checked off the list, it was time to create an escape plan. I was fearful of how my children would get out from the third floor of our townhome. Having a child with Down syndrome (and the extremely low muscle tone that often comes with DS) complicated things further. How do I get her down if she’s disoriented, confused, or flat-out refuses?
For context, our townhouse is sandwiched between two other townhouses, we have no side windows. There is a third floor landing and a bedroom to the right and to the left of this middle landing.
Categories Disabilities