Fire next door.

We had quite the adventure last night.  We woke up to a fire blazing in the townhouse next door.  Jon wrote out a great essay on the events of the night so I am going to just copy and paste that here.

I woke up at about 2:45am this morning to the sound of pops and crackling. There was a flickering light outside of our bedroom window so I popped up out of bed to go investigate. "FIRE!" I shouted. Shannon bolted out of bed and grabbed the phone to called 911. I rushed downstairs and out the back door back to discover a pile of junk blazing on our townhouse neighbor's patio. A squealing smoke alarm and a barking dog could be heard inside the house through the thick smoke. Flames danced off our fence as the area around our gutters began to smolder. I turned on the hose and kicked out as many fence pickets as I could to give me a clear shot. From the other side I could see an inferno under the sheet metal roof consuming a box spring and what looked like the remnants of a couch. The neighbor's patio door had the glass shattered out and flames were licking their way up the trim. It didn’t appear that the fire was coming from inside the house. I doused what I could using our skinny little low water-pressure anything-but-adequate garden hose extinguishing small flames that had caught to the main structure. For a moment, it seemed that I would be able to push the fire back but as I turned the hose to the source I was only met with a reluctant hiss as the flames continued to spread. Smoldering embers began to fall on me singing my arms. I felt like I was fighting a dragon with a toothpick as my only weapon. 

“Jon, the fire fighters are on the way! The kids are in the car, we need to get out!” Shannon frantically shouted. Like an idiot, I ignored her and continued to spray. “Let’s go!!!” she said as she threw a shirt and pair of shorts at me. Smoke began burning my eyes. The fire had me beat. We rushed through the house grabbing my keys from the mantle and out the front door. Smoke poured out of the neighbor’s front windows. Shannon beat on the doors of the two other units attached to our complex warning all she could. 

In our mini-van sat Ella and Wesley in a crying panic. “What’s going on? Is this really happening?” Ella sobbed. Shannon could be heard hollering to droopy-eyed neighbors as I started the car, pulled out of the drive way and drove down the street.

“Its going to be ok,” I a reassured our kids. “There is fire wall that will stop the fire from burning our house”. Ella and Welsey were most concerned about Kitzle and Artemis, our two little kitties who were supposedly trapped inside. The front door was left open so they could have escaped any time but chose to stay hidden under our bed. Moments later, two fire engines came screaming down our street. Shannon caught up with us and I ran back to the scene.

“Get to the other side of the street!” a fire fighter shouted to us as he hopped off the still moving vehicle. The smell of smoke began to flood our cul-de-sac…

The rest was a bit of a blur but the next thing I knew there were a dozen or so men in yellow and orange jump suites working with great speed and skill hooking up hoses, knocking down doors and ushering people away. A pair of police officers began asking us questions. Once they were satisfied that everyone was accounted for they assured us that everything was under control. Minutes later, Shannon’s parents showed up to take our kids away to their house. We, however, continued to wait anxiously on a chilly curb with nothing more to do than watch the flashing lights and listen to the sounds of police radios and hollering heroes. Curious neighbors began to pour onto the streets. Shannon, with her iron will and un-conquerable spirit, calmly explained what was going on to all interested as if there were nothing to see. 

About an hour later we were informed that the fire was out and that fans were being placed to extract the smoke from the structure. From the street I saw that our lights were still on and workers had opened our windows. 1 ½ hours later we received an “all clear” from the fire fighters to return to our house. Everything inside appeared ok. As I went out back to investigate, I saw Firefighters continuing to slush around in a now soaked back patio on the other side of the fence. “Man, it was HOT out here!” I heard them chattering to each other. I could see heavy charring on the corner of our roof where I had knocked out the fence pickets. The firemen had torn out the ceiling of the roof overhanging the back porch and were crawling in and out of the attic searching for any other signs of “hot spots” or surviving embers. Pointing my flashlight into the house, I was able to see that the fire had indeed started on the patio, most likely from a carelessly discarded cigarette butt that had found something flammable to cling on to. None of the interior walls were blackened except for the neighbor’s outside pantry. We won’t be able to see the real extent of the damage until daylight. 

The smell of smoke is now very strong in our house. Shannon left for her parents’ house while I stayed behind to flush out the rest of the smell. Now here I sit telling the tale. I wish I had more box fans. The smell is giving me a headache.

In other news we closed on our new house only 10 hours prior to this little adventure. We are going to start renovations tomorrow… err, today I guess it is now but I offered to start moving furniture instead in light of our scare. Shannon shrugged it off but I’m not sure the kids will feel the same way. I’m just glad we are all safe.