The House Fire that Was Inconvenient not Catastrophic

He hurried inside, woke me up, and called 911 as he walked through the house trying to locate the fire. He opened the door to the garage and saw a red/orange glow surrounding the attic door. He immediately got the keys to the trucks and motorcycle and moved the vehicles to the street next to the house. Firefighters could not have accessed the attic stairs with the motorcycles parked as they were in the garage.

Meanwhile, unsure which galaxy I was in, I stumbled to get dressed. I grabbed my phone, and wallet, then went back to my bedroom for my temple bag and chapstick. I later found three tubes of chapstick in my coat pocket. #priorities

As I left my closet, I choked on the smoke that filled the master bath and bedroom. It was thick and pungent.

The house fire alarms went off about the time I left the house.

The 26-degree temperature woke me up as I went outside. We began to hear sirens and soon (though it felt like forever) firetrucks arrived. I got the keys from Anthony and moved vehicles from the side of the house further down the street giving the firefighters unimpeded access.

Anthony talked to the firemen, telling them where the fire was. They immediately went into action. The hydrant is across the street from our house.

We saw utilities workers come to disconnect electricity and gas. A news crew came but left after a while because we weren’t that interesting of a story.

It took hours before the firefighters let us back into the house. They told Anthony that clearing the garage and telling them exactly where the fire was saved the roof and the house from more substantial damage.

We were astonished at how well firefighters extinguished the fire without damaging the interior of the house. They put a waterproof/fireproof blanket over the baby grand and moved my curio cabinets away from the wall filling with water from the attic.

One of the lead firefighters escorted us to the garage. There were 8 or 9 firefighters still in the garage. Burned and charred remnants from boxes removed from the attic were strewn across the garage floor.

Front and center on the floor by the attic stairs were some decorative gourds used in an event. Probably 100 little pumpkins and gourds had been in a cardboard box. As we walked into the garage, we could see melted pumpkin remnants and some gourds that popped like popcorn. Anthony dramatically said, “Ah man, Not the harvest decorations!” Everyone laughed.

A nearby firefighter said that as boxes were handed down from the attic, the gourd box disintegrated in flames and flaming gourds rained down on the head of the firefighter below. We had a good laugh at the flaming gourds’ expense.

The fire inspector said the fire’s origin point was the stud that the furnace plugged into. Exactly what happened was then unknown. But the plug was a melted mass and the wire casings were burned to nonexistence.

The firemen stayed until the charred remains’ temperatures dropped.

Restoration estimate is 6-8 weeks.

As I stood on the sidewalk watching that smoke, I wondered what would have happened if Anthony had gone to work already (which is a normal occurrence around that time.) I’d been up most of the night and had slept through an alarm. The smoke was billowing through our room before the smoke detectors went off. What a miracle.

I was so grateful the fire didn’t happen two weeks earlier during Thanksgiving week when our house was full of 20 visiting family members!! We’re so grateful for the quick response of first responders and utilities crews.

I’m so grateful for Anthony’s quick thinking and problem-solving skills. He followed inspired promptings and acted rationally. Because of him, the fire was found and contained quickly.