Fire safety

This afternoon I was reading a book with a group of students about historic fires, like the Great Chicago Fire and the Great Fire of London. The end of the book listed a number of fire safety tips which we read through together. One of the boys in the group raised his hand. Now to give you some background, this boy is knowledgeable about a host of topics, but he’s very intense while sharing the information. Throughout the school year I’ve learned what percentage of Jupiter’s atmosphere is hydrogen (89%), which is the smallest Hawaiian island (Kahoolawe), and the name of the Pilgrim baby born at sea (Oceanus). You have to pick the right moment to call on him because if you just call on him at will you’ll be locked into a 20-minute dissertation on the migratory patterns of sea turtles. When I called on him, he caught me off guard because all he said was “My grandpa and grandma moved a heavy piano out of their house once.” We all sat there waiting for the connection to fire safety. It never came so I finally prompted him and asked what this had to do with what we were talking about. Rather nonchalantly he explained that the house was on fire when this was all going. Ah, so now it all tied together. Like we were reading about, make sure you have an escape plan….for rescuing a stinking giant piano. Before getting back into the book, he added “And my aunt and uncle died in the fire.” I’ve gotta admit, I didn’t see that heartwarming ending coming. Let this be a lesson to you kids. When a fire is ravaging your house, make sure you exert all your energy pushing out a large musical instrument while your relatives are burning up like the bad guy in Backdraft.