How to survive a fire

My name is Anthony Merlo and along with my wife Kim and daughter have lived in Merrick for 12 years.

Before that I owned Cristina’s Bake Shop in Merrick from 1982 -1999. I have been in the baking trade since I first went to work with my father, who owned his first bakery in Brooklyn when I was about 8. After marring in 1999, we moved back to Merrick and we love this town. We are active in our church, Cure of Ars and like most are desperately trying to justify staying on Long Island.

When I first decided to blog, I thought baking was the logical choice, and I still intend to do so in the New Year. Then I began with the idea of writing a baking cook book, and if anyone reading this knows how to go about that, please contact me as that is still a goal of mine! I have grown up in family owned bakeries and currently run the bakery in Whole Foods Market in Jericho.

Baking is my “accidental” expertise. My father taught me the trade, I hated it but he said the smartest thing anyone has ever said to me: “Go to college but learn a trade, that way you will never be out of work”. So that was it, the blog would be about baking and be the springboard to my book, I wanted this to be my new career and a path out of retail.

The ability to work from home and enjoy watching my daughter grow up, enjoy the holidays (anyone who works retail food knows how fast Thanksgiving and Christmas becomes a nightmare over a celebration) and maybe make a good and fun living as a author and blogger. The thought of weekends off made me ecstatic! I began putting my recipes, written on now browning and disintegrating papers into the computer. Everything from traditional Italian and German baking to the newest vegan recipes.

Then everything would change June 20, 2011 at 1:35 a.m. That was the night my wife woke me and said she smelled smoke. Within a few seconds we found our top floor engulfed in smoke. I told her to get the baby run out of the house and call 911.

After going through so much these past few months, I mentioned to a friend “I could write a book on how to survive a fire” and I was told I should. So it would turn out that I would begin to blog on the experience of having your house and everything in it destroyed in a fire.

I make no claim to know of or be trained in any area of firefighting and leave all that to the experts. This is what to expect and what we are going through as you try to get life back to normal. Everything from the first vultures trying to make a buck off your tragedy (it starts as soon as the firefighters leave) to what to do with all those pictures and important papers. The calls you forget you need to make and exactly how to answer the questions “What do you need?” Or “What can I do for you”? And of course the emotional rollercoaster you go on once you realize everyone is alive and everything you own is lost.

It has been several months now and we do not expect to be back into our home until sometime in the early new year. And remember the most important thing there is. Nothing, absolutely nothing you own is more important than the lives of the people in your home, so lesson #1 beyond all is make sure that the batteries in the smoke detectors are working! It saved our lives.

Without that this journey would no doubt have turned out far worse than it did. The fire was above our bed and the ceiling collapsed right where we were sleeping a few minutes after we got out. Don’t have a detector? Then today is the perfect day to go get one. You never want to hear it go off, but you will be grateful it did when you are outside of the house watching the firefighters not having to rescue someone.

And a quick note on our volunteer firefighters. Next time you receive that envelope asking for a donation for the firehouse in your neighborhood, don’t toss it out. Give up a small everyday purchase like a snack or cup of $4 coffee for a week. Send them the money instead. You don’t ever want to have to call them but you’ll be glad they are there if you have to.

In the past I gave what I could, but now I gratefully make sure I give what extra I can and if it means no movies or a meal out this week so be it. It's more than worth it.