By Chris Spangler
I remember Oct. 30, 1994, as if it were yesterday.
I’d just arrived at the newspaper when I learned there had been a fatal fire in Fort Atkinson that morning. The victim was Merrel A. Peich, 58-year-old father of Jim Peich, whom I knew well.
At the time, Jim was a 17-year-old senior and member of Fort Atkinson High School’s Signal staff. The future journalists would use our newsroom to produce their monthly school paper.
The Peichs’ Sixth Street duplex caught fire in the middle of the night while they were sleeping. The window of Jim’s second-floor bedroom was painted shut, so he had to push his head through the glass to get air. Jim then climbed out onto the front porch roof, yelling for help until neighbors called 911 and first responders arrived.
Jim suffered smoke inhalation, but survived … thanks to being awoken by his bedroom smoke detector. His father was not as fortunate.
Jim graduated from high school, went on to college and then headed to St. Louis, where he eventually traded his “press hat” for a minister’s robe. A family man with two children, he today serves as executive pastor at Manchester United Methodist Church in St. Louis. Its 2,700-member congregation traces its roots back to 1826.
We now are Facebook friends, and 27 years after his family tragedy, Jim continues to preach the importance of having working smoke alarms in the home.
“On this anniversary of my dad’s death, I give thanks for how he would randomly say, ‘Son, I love you.’ It’s a practice I have continued with my children and ones they love,” Jim posted on Facebook last weekend.
“As we get ready for clocks to fall back an hour this coming Saturday night, remember that it’s time to replace the batteries in your smoke detectors,” he continued. “Even hard-wired detectors need their back-up batteries replaced annually.”
He also advised that if your detector is more than 10 years old, you need to replace the entire unit. Check the back of detector for the manufacturing date.
Eighty percent of fire deaths occur in the home, and three out of every five of those involve nonworking smoke alarms. The peak time for home fire fatalities is between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. when most folks are sleeping.
You can double your chance of surviving a blaze by simply changing your smoke alarms’ batteries once or twice a year. A perfect time is when you turn the clock … like you will when we all “Fall Back” at 2 a.m. this Sunday.
As Jim Peich posted, “Please take this seriously and remind those you love, as it saves lives.”
And he should know, after all. He’s living proof they work.
Merrel A. Peich
The Rev. Jim Peich delivers a sermon at the Manchester United Methodist Church in St. Louis.
Merrel A. Peich rests today in Evergreen Cemetery, Fort Atkinson.
A photo of the kitchen in the Peich home shows the devastation after the duplex was ravaged by fire Oct. 30, 1994.
Contributed photos.
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Thank you for sharing this memory. If it saves one life…..