Welcome to Warning Zone

Warning Zone saves 10 year old girl and family from fire disaster

Thankfully, 10 year old Tallulah visited Warning Zone early this year as part of her Year 6 annual school trip. 20 days later everything she learned became invaluable when a fire started at her home.

Tallulah’s Mum told us:

‘It was early morning and we were all upstairs. Unbeknown to me, Tallulah’s sister had put a hair mask cap in the microwave downstairs, to heat up. She asked Tallulah to go down and get the cap for her which is when Tallulah opened the kitchen door to find the microwave on fire. 

As Tallulah was walking towards the kitchen door she could smell the smoke.  When she opened the door she could see the microwave had flames inside of it. Tallulah ran upstairs to tell me about the fire.  I have a disability which means I have problems with my mobility, so if Tallulah hadn’t alerted me in time the fire could have been a lot more serious.  We have fitted smoke alarms but the fire at that point was contained inside the microwave so the heat sensor in the kitchen had not been triggered.

We all went downstairs. I opened the kitchen door and flames were licking out of the microwave.  I shouted to the girls to get out of the front of the house because the smoke and the smell were quite bad.  Tallulah managed to open the front door and both her and her sister got out of the house. I managed to unplug the microwave and was about to get water but realised the smoke was overpowering and I had to get out immediately. I called 999 as I got out of the front of the house.  We were all still in our night clothes!

 Tallulah was very calm even though she was upset, and kept asking me if I was OK, saying that the house does not matter and the decorator can come and make it better (we had just finished decorating the house).  When the fire service had done their job and put the fire out, Tallulah said to me that she knew exactly what to do after visiting Warning Zone.  She told me that if the fire had been worse we needed to crawl on the floor because the smoke rises and breathing in the smoke can kill you.

At Warning Zone Tallulah learned about all kinds of risks and about the dangers of fire. Because of this she realised that she should touch the door with the back of her hand to see if there was any heat. She learnt how to recognise the fire, that she needed to tell an adult immediately, that she needed to get out of the house, that she needed to crawl if there was smoke, and that she needed to be calm. She did all of those things. She did not panic about her possessions and really helped me and her sister outside to remain calm.  She was the most positive one out of us all.

The first thing on Tallulah’s mind after the incident was what she had learned at Warning Zone.  We would like to thank Warning Zone for teaching Tallulah and her classmates how to stay safe.  Tallulah acted quickly and sensibly and due to her actions the fire was detected much sooner than it could have been and therefore we all got out safely and the damage was minimised. 

 Tallulah thoroughly enjoyed her day at Warning Zone and came home full of stories about what she had learnt.  She wrote a diary entry for school full of detail about how she would respond if she was ever at risk.  Little did we know that she would have to put those lessons into action so soon after her visit!’