Chief Stanton says lessons learned during fire safety week proved good in house fire
Flomaton Fire Chief Steve Stanton credited what Flomaton students learned during Fire Prevention Week with possibly preventing a major fire and possible injuries early Wednesday morning.
Stanton said Addison Green, 15, and her mother Julie Newton, were inside their home at 863 Pineview Cemetery Road about 8:40 a.m. Wednesday when the self-cleaning stove exploded.
Stanton said Green called her husband Bo Newton, who told her to get out of the house. Bo Newton then called Stanton. Green and Newton left the house and Newton realized she had left her cell phone inside and was going back inside to get it when Addison’s Fire Prevention Week training stepped up.
Stanton said Addison closed the front door as she and her mother exited the house to a meeting place outside and then told her mother she couldn’t go back inside.
Stanton said he was at the Flomaton Fire Station when the call came in and he and two others responded. He also had Escambia central to dispatch the Pineview Volunteer Fire Department.
“When I arrived on the scene, heavy smoke was showing,” Stanton said.
He said Flomaton and Pineview firemen entered the house and quickly extinguished the blaze. The firemen then brought the stove to the front yard.
Stanton said while the house received extensive smoke damage it could have been a lot worse.
“If Addison hadn’t shut the front door, air would reached the fire and it would have likely gotten into the attic,” Stanton said.
He said Addison told him that she learned about shutting the door and not going back inside during the Fire Prevention Week programs at Flomaton put on by the fire department.
“I’d like to praise Addison,” Stanton said. “When we do those fire prevention programs, some students may not pay a lot of attention but most do. She did just what we taught the students: get out of the house, close the door, go to a meeting place and do not go back in.”
Stanton added that he’s been to four or five house fires that have started with self-cleaning ovens.
“You couldn’t give me one,” Stanton said. “They are very dangerous.”
Stanton said a self-cleaning oven can heat to more than 700 degrees. He said the heat got so high it busted out the glass on the door and sent flames into the kitchen.
