The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.

God, nudged me home

by Dessa Rodeffer, Quill Publisher/Owner

My mother-in-law's words ran true again, last week-"God watches over babies and fools."

I was finishing up a tenderloin at "The Pink" with my husband Michael last Thursday on our way home from a West Central basketball game in Dallas City when I told him I needed to stop home before going on to friends. He tried to persuade me not to, but no, I felt strongly, I needed to stop home.

Since we were in separate vehicles, I drove home ahead of him. As I opened the door to our home, smoke alarms were going off. My first thought was that I must have left the oven on, but I hadn't. The entire house was full of smoke. Maybe wiring was smoldering somewhere.

As I went around the corner by the bathroom, bright yellow lights were leaping out from the wall where the toilet is. I knew I had left a candle burning!

A huge ball of hot fire was flaming eight inches high from a copper candle holder as if the candle was liquid propane. It had burnt a hole in the wallpaper to the sheet rock and was now burning the edges. I tried to blow it out, but flames jumped back at me, so I ran and got a bowl of water from the kitchen sink and ran back to douse the fire.

Flames jumped at me, caught the roll of toilet paper on fire and jumped to a shelf above the stool where a wash cloth hung and caught on fire. I filled the bowl and doused it again, and shook the flames from the wash cloth. The shelf was charred, but not burning. The shower curtain had melted at the top and was charred. Michael arrived with smoke alarms still beeping and we had to dismantle them and take them outside before they would quit. We opened windows and turned on fans to air out the smoke .

I was lucky, but foolish to think I wouldn't forget, or that this candle was safe to burn a little while since it was a small flame in a solid copper container.

The insurance adjuster suspects the wallpaper caught on fire and dropped into the candle causing a bigger flame. God nudged me home just in time.

Monday, Michael was combining beans when he smelled smoke. He stopped to clean off the smoldering bean dust and it caught the ground on fire. After extinguishing it, he noticed the other end of the field was bellowing smoke so he called 911. Within minutes, firemen were at the county line and put out the 100 foot area before it got into the standing beans. Mike said, in the dry and windy conditions, the half dozen volunteer firemen were a welcome site.

Sunday, an attic electrical fire was reported at Crazy Mary's Pizza in Oquawka which firemen quickly extinguished, but Simpson Cleaning Service of Monmouth said 3/4's of their clean-up from fires has been due to candles.

Fire Prevention is needed more than ever, and the many safety tips given this past Friday to 7th graders have good lessons for us all.

Learn to use fire extinguishers and to call 911. If you don't know how, ask. And if you burn candles, always blow them out before you leave the room, no matter what.