My brothers are ten and eleven years older than me, which makes me the baby of the family. When there’s that much of an age gap between you and your siblings, you’ll grasp at darn near anything to be cool like them. Even if you are the biggest scaredy cat that ever walked the planet, if an opportunity arises you have to take it.
It was 1981 and my brothers who were babysitting me for the evening had commandeered the only TV set in the house to watch The Amityville Horror movie. I had a few options here: I could either be cool and watch it, I could play in the other room with one ear listening to the movie and tremble in fear, or I could go to bed early knowing there was a horror movie on and tremble in fear while the shadows in my room came at me.
Being cool was my only choice.
A scene in the film The Amityville Horror depicts a wall oozing blood.
I was doing pretty well hiding behind my fingers until the bleeding wall scene. That’s about the time I ran screaming out of the room and hid in the closet. My brothers, in an effort to coax me back out, came up with a perfectly logical and not at all scary excuse for the oozing walls.
“It’s not blood, it’s just oil. Oil isn’t scary, right?”
“Hmmm…I guess not, but why would walls drip oil?”
He paused, “Well, because the homeowners had trouble with their furnace. Yeah, the house had an oil furnace which needed to be repaired, so you know, the walls oozed oil.”
My other brother chimed in, “besides, we have gas heat so there’s no need to worry.”
Sounded reasonable enough to me!
Two months later, we were at my cousin’s house when my uncle asked if I’d like to sleep over. Needing to allay my fears without tipping them off that I was wise to the whole oozing walls thing, I figured I’d better slip it casually into the conversation.
“Sounds great!”
I began to rattle off questions.
“Hey so what’s the plan for breakfast?”
“Can we stay up past midnight?”
“How ’bout a nightlight? Yeah… The Kermit the Frog one would be perfect.”
“Say it sure is toasty warm in here. What kind of heating system do you have running in this place?”
“Oil??!! NOoooooo!!!”
It goes without saying that even after the uncontrolled sobbing subsided, I did not spend the night.
***
So whether you heat your home with electric, gas, oil or a hundred gallons of hemoglobin, take a few precautions to protect your home from fire.
Here are some tips:
- Have your furnace, chimney or wood stove cleaned and inspected every year by a professional
- Keep all flammable objects at least three feet away from your furnace or space heater
- Make sure curtains are kept away from electric baseboard heaters
- Never leave space heaters unattended while in use
- Check your furnace filter once a month and replace it when dirty
Kathleen Burke Sunder is a proud Saucon Valley graduate. She and her husband Tom are licensed insurance agents and have worked in the family business for over 19 years. The Burke Insurance Agency Inc., provides auto, home, small business and life insurance.
As an independent agency, they represent A-rated (excellent) A.M. Best rated companies. Call Kathleen at 610-691-3743 today to discuss your insurance needs! You can also email her at Kathleen@burkeinsagy.com. Like The Burke Agency Inc. on Facebook and Instagram!
