FORT WASHINGTON, Md. — Marine veteran Edward Smith had barely 15 seconds to react. Sitting down in his Fort Washington, Maryland kitchen to sip a cup of coffee, he reached for the remote to turn on the TV news.
The 82-year-old’s mundane Monday morning was about to morph into a life or death situation.
“The kitchen filled with smoke. Just filled with smoke,” Smith said, gesturing with his hands. “I quickly felt the heat on my face and on my hands. I dove down to the floor and I crawled out.”
Flames were lapping at the front entryway to his home in the 4100 block of Maidstone Place, Fort Washington. Certain death was a mere few inches from his face as he scrambled to safety on his hands and knees.
Smith estimates that from the time he first saw the smoke to the time he was safely outside was about 10 to 15 seconds.
“I got out with just the clothes I had on and what I had in my pockets. That was it. Everything else was lost,” Smith said.
Under any other circumstances or with any other, average 82-year-old, this type of raging inferno could have quickly proven fatal.
So what was it that allowed this octogenarian to process the situation and instinctually move to safety so quickly?
“My training,” said Smith, a retired Marine, who served in Vietnam from 1962-1966. “My training is always ‘what if' - If I’m driving a car; ‘what if’ - If I’m walking to a market or something, ‘what if.’ My entire life I’ve always rehearsed in my head what I would do if a certain event took place. And I think that’s what saved me.”
Had Smith stayed in that kitchen a moment longer than he did and considered what to do next, we could be reporting a much different story.
“I don’t even want to think about what might have happened,” he said.
“We’ve got to stop taking every day for granted like it's never going to happen to me,” said Smith. “My entire 44 years of living in this house is gone.”
Smith says people are often taken aback by his age.
“People don’t believe I’m 82 years old because of my physical ability,” he said. “I’ve never had problems doing anything; running, jumping or playing sports. I attribute that to a couple of things. I played tennis as a young man. I joined the marine corps. Every day, every week was nothing but physical training.”
I told Smith once he appeared on television, other octogenarians would want to know his secrets for looking and feeling young.
“The secret, basically, is to find out what your health limits are,” he said. “Try to stay healthy, eat the right foods. Do whatever exercise. If you need to lose weight, do it. Don’t wear it every single day. If my doctor said ‘lose five pounds’ I’d do it. There must be a reason for him to say that.”
Smith is not sure when or if he will be able to rebuild his longtime home. His family has started a GoFundMe page to help him. You can find that HERE.