A woman travelling as a passenger in a car driven by her father spotted a thick, dark grey plume of smoke looming high above buildings as they made their way home and began filming it. The realisation of what they were witnessing came only as they got closer to the blaze in the city of Pasco, Washington, USA.
Drive home takes a shocking turn
Her father, not visible on screen, is first heard speculating: “Now I’m thinking it’s a house.” The woman replies: “It might be. I'm thinking your neighbourhood.”
Her father says he is “getting worried” as they continue driving towards the smoke. They notice a car making a U-turn and assume it was so the driver “could go and see” the source of the fire. The woman says: “Maybe that is your neighbourhood.”
Realisation hits as flames appear
Her dad describes the fire as “engulfing” as they get closer to the thick, heavy smoke. The woman continues: “Oh my goodness. That’s someone’s backyard.”
Her father grows noticeably quieter in the footage. She then says: “Is that your backyard?” Silence again follows before her father’s phone starts to ring. The woman then says: “Dad, that’s your house.”
Shock and community response
As they pull up, they can see bright orange flames dominating the property and a dark cloud of smoke pouring out of it. In shock, the woman jumps out of the car and races towards her neighbours, who are standing in the street, and asks them what has happened - but nobody seems to have any answers. In the distance, a fire engine can be seen approaching to tackle the blaze.
The footage was shared on Reddit, where it prompted a strong response from social media users. One person said: “Man’s heart had to be in his stomach driving up to that.”
Another agreed: “That’s heartbreaking. The silence from the dad, he must be lost for words.” To which, someone else replied: “Yeah, judging by his silence, he had a feeling when they got closer.”
Another Reddit user said: “Twice in my life, I've driven home to see smoke in my neighbourhood and my heart started pounding, hoping really really hard it wasn’t my house. You feel so bad for the person, but you are so freaking relieved it's not yours.”
And another shared: “This past Sunday there were a bunch of pics of a massive plume of smoke in the city subreddit of my hometown. All the comments were making jokes with zero empathy for the people it could be impacting. Turns out it was my parents’ house burning down. Everyone is safe. But they lost everything.”
Fire safety advice
The government’s Prepare Campaign states: “Most fires in the home start accidentally. Cooking accidents are the main cause of fires in the home. Faulty electrical appliances cause thousands of fires in the home each year. Smoking and candles also cause fires.”
It advises fitting smoke alarms on every floor of your home and testing they’re working every month. It adds: “You are 11 times more likely to die in a fire if you do not have any working smoke alarms in your home.”
