At about 6:30 a.m., Wednesday, Richmond fire units were called to a single-family dwelling fire. News reports state that firefighters found smoke coming from the roof and, I would throw in, smoke coming from the eaves. It appears that firefighters found fire in the attic. Reports also stated that neighbors saw the smoke, attempted to notify occupants by knocking on locked doors, and made the call to 9-1-1. Most attics are not protected by smoke alarms. If the fire started in the attic, there was pre-burn time before smoke may have reached alarms. However, I have not read or heard anything about working smoke alarms in the home. From what I read, it only took firefighters about thirty minutes to bring the fire under control. My guess is that the three victims who died did so from smoke inhalation.
What are the potential causes of a fire in the attic? In most cases, the primary cause is going to be an electrical malfunction of some type. If there was a thunderstorm happening at the time, then investigators may suspect a lightning strike. Back to the electrical malfunction:houses have wiring running through the attic. There are also lights in the attic and ceiling and bathroom fans, Some houses have the air handler units for the heating and air conditioning in the attic. All of these are possible causes of fires in the attic. With this stifling heat wave, fans and air conditioners have been in overdrive. Again, fires in the attic can go undetected for a time before smoke and fire make it to the living space, but if there were no working smoke alarms in this case, then the fire could have gone undetected for even longer. Though one family member had gone for a medical procedure, the others in the home were most likely asleep at the time of the fire.
I did read one report that indicated that firefighters had difficulty fighting the fire because of the large amount of contents in the home. I did not see the word hoarder, but I have been in many homes where there were paths that you had to follow to go from room to room. If there were heavy contents in the living space, then I have to suspect that there might have been heavy contents in the attic space. A situation like this means there is a need for a higher number of working smoke alarms and an increased need for a practiced home escape plan. Every home needs properly placed and operating smoke alarms. Every home also needs a practiced home escape plan. My problem with this ongoing discussion is that lives continue to be lost due to fire and no one seems to be listening, before or after the fact. Why can’t we do everything possible to prevent accidental fires instead of having to live through the aftermath of three precious lives lost?
My son’s alarms activated at 3:37 a.m. one morning. They only activated for about 15 to 20 seconds and then went back to normal. Though he could not see which specific alarm activated, he suspected that it was the smoke/CO alarm in his family room. My recommendation was to vacuum all of the detectors. There could have been a power surge or a detector going bad. He did get up and investigate, and he found no problem. Most fire fatalities occur when people are sleeping. I have said this many, many times before: when your smoke alarms wake you up, you may only have one chance to make the right decisions and save your family’s lives. Never go to bed thinking that it cannot happen to you.
