The Joseph Allen Story
Ever since you were a child, you’ve constantly been told to “Stay Alert” or “Be Careful”. Whether it was through lectures from parents or teachers. A graphic action scene you watched in a horror movie. Even the settle reminders on your social media timelines. You take in the advice, see the movies as exaggerated circumstances, and hope that situation doesn’t happen to you. You listen though. You do so well as to not have an accident throughout the years of your life. Waiting to send that text until after you’ve made your destination. Even simple things such as looking both ways before crossing the street, are ways the subtle messages of “Be Safe” subconsciously work. You are so concerned with being safe on the road or in public settings that you sometimes let your safe guard down in the “safety” of your own home overlooking the little things. On a Friday afternoon in February that moment of staying alert and overlooking the small things became all too real.
After a nice sunny day of attempting to get a new Georgia license at the DMV, I came home to relax while eating some chili dogs and fries. My roommate happened to be awake and walked into the kitchen as I was putting the cooking pots on the stove to preheat. My grandma always told me its best to put the burners on no higher than 6 to prevent accidents. She said it in a humorous way so it’s something I kept in memory while cooking. After setting the stove, I walked to my room to set up YouTube on my TV for while I ate. My roommate followed and asked if I wanted to play Call of Duty instead. I told him “No thanks”, that I prefer to not play video games while I ate. So my roommate sat in my room to chill and watch some YouTube videos. As I was scrolling looking for a video, I looked out my room into the kitchen, and noticed an orange light coming from the kitchen. I knew this was unusual, so without hesitation, I ran into the kitchen. To my surprise the pot I prepared for my fries was engulfed in flames. The first thing that came to mind was to get rid of the fire quickly since I lived in a single wide trailer. I knew water wouldn’t work for a grease fire, so I took a quick look around for anything that could help. I could not find anything and chose to grab the pot and attempt to throw it outside the back door in the kitchen. I suffered third degree burns throughout my right arm and left leg, while causing second degree burns on face and left arm. Even after being burned, I yelled for my roommate to help find a fire extinguisher or anything. We had nothing to help prevent the fire from spreading.
Everything happened so quickly. We had no warning. I just recently moved in a month prior and overlooked not having a smoke alarm or fire extinguisher. I was so busy with school, putting in resumes to further my film career, and settling in that I let my guard down while simply preparing lunch after a day of errands. Regardless of the case, I may have already been too late to prevent anything, I will always think in the back of my mind that there was more I could have done. Yes, my roommate made it out of the trailer safely. Yes, I made it out alive. The setbacks, I will be able to overcome. But memories and trauma caused from the accident will always be there and serve as lessons and reminders, that no matter how alert and cautious you are, you can never be too careful and overlook small details in any given situation. My accident could have easily been worse, and I’m very grateful to have made it out in the shape that I did. I thank my strong support cast including family and friends, that before I never would have expected to be such strong positive motivators in my road to recovery. I hope this article reaches anyone that experienced a tragic accident in the past and helps motivate to continue pushing forward and looks at their accident as a challenge that can be overcome. As well as preventing future tragic accidents caused by simply overlooking things that are there to prevent and help.