I foughts the Fires...and I wonz!
2008-Dec-03, Wednesday 06:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
msmoonFirst off, I apologize for not writing in here soon. Last I left off, I had arrived safely. I’m here. I’m safe. Good God, but today was interesting.
So, I should probably say that each day here has been really nice. I mean, I’ve been able to sleep in and Mom and I have managed a bit of shopping and such, but over-all everything’s been nice and quiet. Except for the on-going fight between me and my computer…but that’s another story.
So anyway. Mom had a migraine yesterday, and she’s kinda still down with it today. My Aunt Carolyn (mom’s sis) came over this morning to help with a few thing, but she left before 10, and Mom went to bed. Around 2ish...I smelled something really bad. So I went into the living room to check the fireplace…it smelled like smoke, so that’s the logical place to check, right? Well, the fire had died, so I knew it wasn’t that. I figured, maybe the fan that blew the heat from the fireplace into the room had got some ash in it or something and that was the smell. About then, Mom got up. I asked her if she smelled it too and she said she did. She said she was hungry, so I cut a few slices of pizza I’d made for her. I put it in the microwave and hit start….and that was when I saw it.
Outside, smoke was billowing onto our carport and covering the car with ash. I immediately ran out and looked, and it first looked like an extension cord had caught on fire right next to the house, and it had melted the siding off the side of the house and was starting to melt the siding on the roof of the carport. I ran back inside and grabbed a little can of extinguisher we had (not an extinguisher, just this can for people with fireplaces who want to put out a fire). I ran back out and emptied the can onto the fire. It was still going. So I ran back inside and grabbed the car keys. I went around to the front of the car (because the fire is on the driver’s side, it’s just towards the back), got in, and got the car out of the way. Then, I went back inside to see what else I could use to put the fire out.
Mom had grabbed the phone, and was on the phone with 911 and the fire department. She said they were on their way, so she was going to go and get dressed real quick (she was in her night gown since she’d been sleeping all day). I looked around the kitchen and grabbed a really deep pot that Mom had used to make soup. There was still some soup in it, but …who cares about that right? We’d been eating the soup for three days anyway! I ran back out and doused the fire with the soup (it flared up a bit at first, but then it died off. Later Mom joked with the firemen that I either was desperate or I really didn’t like her soup ^..^). It still wasn’t completely out, so I kept running back into the house to fill the pot with water and then running back out to empty it on the fire. Mom came out about my third or fourth trip and she took some flour out and was putting that over the smoldering embers to smother the rest of it down.
By that time, the fire was pretty much dead. The house was full of smoke, though I’m pretty sure I killed me a smoke alarm =..= Five minutes or so later, we hear the sirens…they sound lost because they’re approaching and then they’re going and then away and back again. Of course, the fire’s out at this point, so all we really need them for is investigation. We both decided to use the time we had to open up the house, doors and windows and all so that the smoke could filter out again. The smell was really bad and my lungs were still heavy from inhaling so much smoke. Then we went outside to wait for the fire trucks to find us. I look down, and I’m wearing my sleek black exercise pants (the ones with the sky-blue stripe down the side of the legs), and a dark grey sleeveless top that has the built in bra AND I’m barefoot.... It’s about 58 degrees outside, but I’m hot form…well the fire, for one, and two – adrenaline!
They finally arrived...two trucks and a couple cop cars at first, but another pulled up a minute later. The fire had nothing to do with the fireplace, and though it had melted the siding, it did not get into the house. So, we were very very lucky to have caught it so quick. It melted an extension cord partially and reduced an ice chest to almost nothing... we were extremely fortunate because right next to the blaze was a cinderblock and on top of that cinderblock was a container of oil. If the metal had melted enough, and the oil got onto the fire….there wouldn’t have been anything I could’ve done to help.
Once the firemen left, Mom called my Aunt Carolyn to tell her what had happened. Aunt Carolyn was beside herself, because she said she’d put what she thought was a dead log right where the fire started. She said that the log could not catch on fire in the fireplace, so she just put it there…and the wind must have got whatever was on fire on that log to burning, and it was right next to a pile of dead leaves so...I imagine it just evolved from that. Mom tried to tell her not to worry about it too much, because we’re both safe and sound and (even if we do have to repair the siding) the house is pretty much undamaged.
I took some pictures after everything had died down. You can really see how close we came from them.
Here’s where it started out. By the time the firefighters got there, we had started pulling individual pieces away with a poker to make sure that it was good and dead.
This helps you to see the siding that melted as well as all the fire damage.
You can really see the damage to the siding here...
The siding, a little closer, and you can see the brick fire place on the side there, and at the bottom on one side is an extension cord and our cable which…miraculously survived o..o
Wow…you can really see Mom’s soup in the mix there, can’t you! The firefighters joked with me that Mom’s chicken noodle really is good for you ^..^
Mom’s trying to sweep the debree away, and she’s gotten most of it up. You can see in this distance that crumpled up plastic stuff, that’s what’s left of the siding that came off.
This is what’s left of the extension cord that had been in the blaze. It’s pretty well wasted now.
Here’s the cinderblock that had been right next to the fireplace, with the thing of oil on top of it. It’s very blackened, and the oil container is melted in certain parts, but we moved it with the fireplace poker as soon as it was safe, so it wouldn’t be near the original burn sight.
The cement that you see in back there is the steps to our front door, and the ash is the pile of leaves and mom’s rose bush...what’s left of it. You can also see a few coke cans and, that tiny piece of red? That’s a long rectangle box that my dad had kept those little triangle reflectors...it’s something that you use if you have a break down or accident to divert traffic...yeah, it’s gone now. Sorry, Dad!
My camera had been malfunctioning, and I didn’t even realize I’d gotten this shot till I came inside and plugged the car into the computer! :D
These are three of the fire fighters that stayed to inspect the damage and make sure they’d gotten all of the fire out. Really nice guys. The one in the center there told me I did a fantastic job and that if I wanted a job as a firefighter I should definitely try out ^..^
We’re very blessed to have so little damage and all. And now I am so very very tired! After it all happened, Mom and I fixed supper...I hadn’t eaten all day. I woke up at 10 and had a cup of coffee, and that was it, and I still was not hungry. But I went and showered while Mom put some eggs on to boil for a salad. When I got in the tub, I was scrubbing the black off my feet, and I noticed on the top of my feet there were two small round blue things. I reached down to scratch them off, and I had to pry them off me. There were two round pock marks where they were, and all I can assume is that some blue plastic or something had popped out of the fire and onto my foot and just burned there.
After I showered I was hungry so...Mom and I had our salads. It was nice. Only just now am I really really tired (and really hoping my lungs clear themselves up soon).
…in related news, Mom and I have decided to use the central unit for heat and not light another fire ^..^
