Garage fire prevention | Garage Door Repair Sandy Springs GA
Our family garage had always been one of my favorite places to spend afternoons with my son. Regardless if we used our time to shoot baskets at the rim that hung above the outside of our garage door, working on one of our vehicles inside the garage, or simply watching a game on the small television screen that sat above my work bench, the garage always provided a place for the two of us to escape reality. Over time, my wife and two older daughters became accepting of the fact that on any given Saturday afternoon, Jake and I would be in the garage.
We had taken every measure we could think of to provide security and protection to our garage. I had read several articles that demonstrated how a attached garage provided an easy point of entry for intruders. We had a key less garage doors that could only be operated by a security touch pad or the remote controls in our vehicles, we had installed a door in the entry way into our home that was equipped with a dead bolt lock, we even went as far as to provide a motion sensor light system both inside and out of our garage. We put so much thought into how we could protect our garage from others that we failed to remember to protect it from ourselves.
The fire had started because of electrical issues concerning the wall outlet. The fire department informed us afterwards that we were more than likely over loading it through the use of dividers, which enabled us to get more use out of the outlet that was only designed for two cords to be plugged in at a time. By the time I noticed the smell from the other side of the garage, there was no effect from unplugging anything. The flames were already growing and starting to consume a large area around the outlet. I ran inside to the kitchen get the fire extinguisher, but was unable to find where we had put it. By the time I returned to the garage with a pot of water, the fire had spread throughout the two exterior walls of the garage. Our family home had been almost completely destroyed before the fire department could arrive at the scene.
For months I tried as hard as I could to blame the local fire department for what had happened to our house. If they would have gotten there sooner, I wanted to believe the fire would have been contained to the garage. Finally I had to accept the fact that my habits and lack or preparation led to the fire. If I had put more thought into the safety of my garage, there is a good chance the fire would not have spread the way it did.
For beginners, I should not have had so many power cords running to one outlet. I had two separate three way dividers which allowed six appliances to be operated through a outlet designed for two. I did not have a smoke alarm in my garage that might have made me aware of the fire sooner. If these two facts were not enough, I can also see how big of a mistake it was not having a fire extinguisher designated for the garage area. I know that I am not able to do anything that can go back and change the past. My hope is to use my experience to hopefully expand the thoughts that come to mind concerning what exactly defines garage protection and security. The bad guys of the world are not the only threat that needs to be guarded against.