For Port Jeff Mom, Where There's Smoke There's A Lesson in Fire Safety

When Heather Biedenkapp’s three kids came home from after a visit from the Port Jefferson Fire Department, her young boys, both in Kindergarten, had to complete a homework assignment about fire safety. That assignment came in very handy when Biedenkapp noticed smoke coming from her basement the next morning.

Corralling Heidi, 7, Parker, 5, and Preston, 5, together to get them to go over the escape routes and where they would meet if there was a fire wasn’t easy but Biedenkapp got her family to establish a plan of action along with checking all their fire detectors and going over a list of important emergency phone numbers, including the Port Jefferson Fire Department.

"We got it done," said Biedenkapp.

That information came in useful when, after dropping her children off to school and running some errands, Biedenkapp, a stay at home mom who is president of her own online MMA apparel company, came back to her house on Jefferson Landing Circle and smelled smoke.

As soon as the odor hit her, "the smoke detectors started screeching," she said. Biedenkapp checked the house, determined the smoke was coming from the finished basement and went to investigate.

"I made the mistake of opening the furnace room door," she said. "Clearly this is where it was coming from."

Biedenkapp admits opening the door wasn’t the right thing to do and later on her children admonished their mother for her lapse in judgement when it came to fire safety.

"You think you know what to do in an emergency," she said. "You don’t realize how you’re going to react."

Luckily, she found a little fire hat and sticker with the phone number for the on a nearby table.

"It told me what to do," Biedenkapp said. "The fire department was in here in two minutes."

While her children were very concerned about their mother's safety, being kids, they also put things into perspective very quickly. The family was forced to throw out many of the toys that they kept in the basement because of smoke damage and the smell. Parker, who is autistic, was especially sensitive because his sensory perception is more acute. According to his mother he's more aware of the smoke damage than her other children.

“They were bummed about their toys,” Biedenkapp said.

But she’s not too worried about them.

"Christmas coming soon," she said.