I Survived the Coughlin Fire of 2011

Well my Thanksgiving turned out to be a lot more interesting then I imagined.

To begin, a couple of my new Gonzaga University friends and I were cooking. I do not know exactly what they were cooking (zucchini stuff), but I was making french fries, rice-stuffed bell peppers, pasta, and salad.

So, one of them was going to make fried zucchini, so she set the oil on the stove. A while later she decided to take the top off. Apparently something hit the oil, it caught fire. We were all like "shitshitshitshitshitshit" and screaming. First reaction was to put water on it. I learned at one time never to do that, but of course I forgot completely. Water on burning oil is THE worst thing to do. It exploded (explosion number 1). A ball of fire came up immediately. The fire was about a meter away from our faces, not even. So I go to grab the fire extinguisher as people start running to the fire (they heard the screaming). They try to help by throwing water on it (explosion 2) and then my spraying it with water (larger explosion 3). I am wrestling with the fire extinguisher, unable to figure it out (a wild, out of control fire is raging in fits and bursts and I have held a fire extinguisher once, so I probably could have figured it out under any other, normal circumstances, but...). Then, one guy takes the flaming pot and pours it into the sink, the sink where the running water is. That causes the last explosion (explosion 4), which become a flaming column. Thankfully somebody got the fire extinguisher and puts out the flames or else the whole place would have caught.

Firetrucks outside of Coughlin.

We all are immediately ushered downstairs outside. Many people are just stumbling outdoors, not really caring. I get calls from Mariah and Kirby (telling them immediately it is a fire and to leave). Standing outside, we are telling everyone the story. My cousin, Brigid, takes out her camera and looks through... and finds three photos of the fire. The first two are the smaller, little flame, which is still kind of crazy, but then she pans to the last one and nearly the entire shot in enveloped in flame. She got a great shot of the flames (later, campus security saw the shot and flipped, immediately asking for an email of it).

They let the few people who were cooking back inside to retrieve stuff, and boy it was a mess! The ceiling was black, there was either soot or white, extinguisher powder everywhere. It was like a warzone.

The scorched ceiling.

Kirby holding the saved Zucchini.

So there you have it, my Thanksgiving meal with friends and family.