Loss is one of a few things that we know to be inevitable, but when it hits it's still devastating and no matter how much we wish we could have avoided it we just can't . We think back and wish we would have done something differently, wish we would have been interrupted, taken a moment longer to avoid the loss, to wish we would have stopped and been a little more thorough looking and observing in our area. But no matter what, we can't change the past, but we can change the future.
One Sunday morning back in Minnesota, as I was getting ready for work I had taken a moment to look at my phone and checked Facebook like I had many times before, but this day was different. Within the feed on my home page I had seen a post from my mom and within it had a picture of our garage with fire and smoke billowing from the crevasses of the building; the realization had hit that any and every memory that was stored within, was now gone.
That garage meant the world to our family, funny to say, but it's where we had so much history happen, so many birthdays, my graduation party, our annual Fourth of July party and where many many barbecues had taken place. As well as all those amazing events it was my fathers refuge from the world or as mom liked to call it, it was his man cave. He would build furniture and practice carpentry, as well as work on our cars and before that his race car on the hoist he had installed. It was where we stored family photos, items of memory and the side panel of my fathers race car; now all perceived to be gone.
As soon as I had seen the post I stormed out the door in a frantic getting into my car and speeding to my parents house. I got there and was met by the authorities, a mix of fireman and police. I let them know who I was and that I wanted to see my family. One of my parents saw me and I was able to go and embrace and comfort them, we were devastated.
My father explained to me that they had just gotten back from church and my mother was making lunch for the family. She was at our kitchen window looking out and noticed the smoke coming off the garage. My mother cried out to Dan and he told her to call 911 as he rushed towards the garage and into the smoke.
By the time he was able to get there the fire had gotten ahold of the saw dust that was in the shop and ignited the wood planks that were within. In a matter of moments the plastic that held the gasoline canisters intact had melted and fuel spread across the shop. In a frenzy my father opened the overhead door and got our family Tahoe and his Chevy truck out of the building that was being engulfed in flame. There was no time for anything else, it was all gone. The fire department showed up and fought the flames, they were able to put it out, but everything was ruined. Everything had either been soaked, burned or reaked of the devastation.
To this day the fire is still a mystery, we'll never know what was the cause of the flame, but when something like this happens all you can do is move forward and that's what he did. He built that garage near the time I was born and again he built up the shop again, but with improvements he had longed for over the years. We never know when tragedy will strike, but we will keep moving forward, as that's all there is.
The reason I share this story is to share the reason behind the passion for why we do what we do at Celestial Technology. In the security industry there is a lot of focus on keeping loved ones safe, as well as belongings kept from burglars. But the other major benefit with a home alarm system is to have the ability to have monitored smoke detectors. The biggest benefit is that you will cut down on the reaction time needed to have the ability to fight the fire and get somewhere safe in time, to avoid catastrophe.
Maybe if my family had monitored detection devices in the home and shop we could have avoided the tragedy, had the time to use the fire extinguisher. But with every tragedy comes sadness, but not only that, for me it ignited a passion to want to keep people safe and what they love protected. We strive to be better then the rest because we know that taking certain precautions are the only way to avoid tragedy first hand.
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