Illinois News Anchor’s Close Call With Fire Prompts Important Safety Reminder

For those that don't know, I'm the daughter, granddaughter, and wife of past firefighters, and several of my closest friends work in the fire service as well.  Growing up surrounded by "smoke eaters", (their words, not mine), has taught me many valuable life lessons and safety warnings that I still live by today.

Important Fire Prevention Reminders

Most of those warnings are ones you probably already know, but they have been permanently ingrained in my brain continuously for over 40 years. They include:

• Always sleep with your bedroom door shut so there's a barrier between you and a fire.
• Always check your smoke alarm batteries and make sure you have fire extinguishers on every level of your home.
• Never crowd junk around your furnace or other house mechanicals.
• Don't throw candles in the trash immediately after you blow them out.
• Always pour water on a campfire even if it appears to have burned out and isn't smoking.
• And NEVER run the clothes dryer overnight or when no one is home. (This one was/is my Dad's favorite).

While I've heard countless stories about homes catching fire, no one I know has experienced one of the things my fire family has always warned me about...until today.

This morning my friend, Eyewitness News Morning Anchor Whitney Martin, shared a very scary close call she experienced yesterday that immediately made me think dang, my Dad was actually right! (Actually, my first thought was thank God Whitney is ok! Then I thought, dang my Dad was right)...

One last piece of dryer advice? Make sure you clean your lint trap often, and I'm talking about taking a vacuum to it and sucking out the lint that doesn't end up in the trap. Lint buildup is the cause of almost half of the dryer fires that occur each year...my fireman Dad told me that too.