I Should Be So Lucky, Lucky, Lucky, Lucky!

[wellie]

One can never be TOO careful, believe me!

Trousers and I were sat there watching Jools Holland, as you do, of a New Years' Eve, and even with 'Man Flu', Trousers detected the smell of burning in the wee small hours as we were sat there boogying (as us mid-life-crisis peeps only know how to do....) and he pulled a few cushions away off of my lovely sofa, and discovered that a spark from the open fire had ignited the seat-cushion, and it was slowly burning a hole downwards into the foam and into the sofa.

Had he NOT discovered this, I may well NOT be telling you this story.

We could have gone to bed and never woken up.....

[piskieinboots]

Oh. My. God.... ((hugs))

Thank goodness you are both safe hun and thank goodness you didn't go to bed early....
erm - how the heck do you manage to stay up soooo late

[shirlthegirl43]

Thank goodness Trousers has a good nose (even with man flu). Glad you were up late too.

Moral of the story - if you have an open fire and burn logs - don't forget the fireguard!

[SarzWix]

If it's a fairly modern sofa, it should have fire retardant in the foam, which would hopefully have kept it to a slow smoulder and never burst into flame... But even so... We have an open fire, and the thought of fire is one of my worst nightmares... We have a family escape plan & everything. And a spark guard, but if we're in the room with the fire we usually don't use it...
Lucky escape Wellie, glad you're ok, and at best - not having to buy a new sofa!

[Seahorse]

Yikes! Very glad to hear nothing worse happened!

[piskieinboots]

We have a family escape plan & everything.

That is very sensible, tis something we should all review

[kirsty b]

So glad Trousers has such a good sense of smell, despite a cold! Good to know the both of you are still safe and well.

[scarey55]

Bl**dy hell Wellie, you don't do things by half do you?

I'm hoping this was New Years EVE and you were just having the last of the bad luck of 2007 ready for all the joys that 2008 have to offer

Seriously though, well done Trousers for spotting it, otherwise The Travellers Rest might have had its first wake

[Flummery]

You two are safe - so WE'RE lucky too! Take care, everyone with an open fire. So cosy but so dangerous.

[trousers]

thanks peeps, one of the few things god blessed me with is a good sense of smell cold or not , i must say ,the sofa saga was our fault for not shutting the doors on the wood burner and also burning cr#p wood which spits and spats from time to time,lucky not to slope off to bed without finding it though..... still lesson learnt !

[Alice]

Oh Wellie and Trousers. What a lucky escape. I'm so relieved for you both. But let it be a lesson to all of us. I'm sure we all get a bit complacent and slip into carelessness so maybe now is the time to tighten up on our fire prevention habits.
And will everybody check that they do have enough smoke detecters, properly positioned and in working order. And if you don't have a fire escape plan, please make one NOW. Most fires are needless so let's make sure it doesn't happen to us.
I'm starting by making sure the dishwasher is finished and SWITCHED OFF before I go to bed. Apparently they're a common source of fires. I had a washing machine that went on fire so never go out and leave one on now. Be careful everybody.

[rustylady]

So glad you're both OK. Fire is a horrible thing - a good friend but a terrible enemy. I think my worst moment at home was when I woke to smell burning and found that daughter had left her bedside lamp on (on the floor) and somehow managed to push her pillow out of bed on top of the lamp!!! No flames, but the smoke was choking. At work worst moment was a chip pan fire, colleague and I put it out with the fire blanket as per procedures, but it was scarey!