ASHLAND — It started as a small fire in the corner of the makeshift living room, lit by a single match and a newspaper.
The small fire burned dutifully, but after two minutes the crowd of children at the Ashland Fire Department’s sixth annual Live Fire Demonstration were getting antsy for a huge blaze.
“When will it get big?” a child asked his mother.
They wouldn’t have long to wait. The flames jumped to a nearby curtain, which was quickly devoured by the growing fire. Then the flames engulfed a nearby sofa, charring it black and exposing its innards.
Within a minute, the entire room became an impenetrable mass of flame, spewing foul-smelling smoke toward the crowd.
But the fire was not done yet. The flames then engulfed the adjoining bedroom almost instantaneously, creating a massive fireball that reached toward the sky.
The crowd of around 70 people gasped at the apocalyptic sight as the fire consumed the home.
Then, the Ashland Fire Department got to work putting out the blaze. Firefighters quickly doused the flames with their hoses, and when the smoke cleared, the two rooms were blackened and broken beyond recognition.
It took 3 minutes and 58 seconds for the fire to go from a burning newspaper to a 15-foot-tall mass of flame.
“Fire continues to double every 60 seconds. We could do this to two rooms, three rooms, five rooms, this is what happens to houses. It doesn’t stop until it is stopped,” Ashland Capt. Mark Miller said.
“So we could do almost an unlimited size of building and what we want to make sure that people understand just how quickly this happens.”
However, there was another bedroom that was untouched by the fire. Like the bedroom that was burned up, this room was right next to the living room. But this bedroom had its door closed, a simple barrier that saved the life of the home’s sole occupant, a stuffed panda bear.
The bear — who has survived three previous fire demonstrations — is used to show how simple acts like closing a bedroom door at night can contain fires and save lives.
“There’s so much protection with just that door, that it’ll stop fire. It’ll give you time, time is of the essence,” Miller said.
A closed door can help keep out flames, heat, and smoke, Miller said. An open door will allow the room’s temperature to grow quickly to ignition levels, where the room is so hot that everything catches fire at once.
Also key for surviving a fire is paying attention to your smoke alarm and ensuring it’s always in working order, he added.
Every year, the fire department and Ashland Main Street put on the event during Fire Prevention Week to show the public the dangers of fire and how to stay safe from it.
“This is actually the 100th anniversary of Fire Prevention Week, started because of the Great Chicago Fire,” Ashland Main Street Director Sandra Tunnell said.
This year, the doomed home’s furniture was donated by Ashland University and the lumber for the home was donated by Farm and Home Hardware.
After the fire was put out the crowd had a chance to inspect the decimated home up close. A young boy in the crowd looked at a loveseat that was flayed by the fire, exposing its stuffing.
“Now I know why babies chew on furniture. To eat the marshmallows inside,” he said.
