Monday, March 05, 2007

A few pics

Photobucket wasn't cooperating with me last night, so I threw a couple of pictures up on Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7226099@N06/

Saturday, March 03, 2007

This wasn't how I planned to spend my day...

Since Scott and Shannon had gone to Oklahoma for the weekend, I had planned to take a little nap and then get up and go to Walmart to stock up on groceries. Little did I know that my day was not going to go quite that way.

About 11:00 this morning, I'm laying in bed dozing, and I hear some rustling between our house and the one next door. Since it's pretty windy, I don't think much about it, and didn't think much about it when I smelled smoke - just opened my eyes and didn't see smoke in the room, so I just figured that because it was windy, I was smelling the fireplace, and I dozed back off. A few minutes later, I'm smelling smoke again and just about the time I decide I better get up and check it out, Rusty starts barking and there's serious pounding on the door. I threw on my robe and went to the door and our neighbor from two doors south of us said "I think the house next door is on fire!!!" I look over to the north, and sure enough, I see smoke and flames and so I tore back in the house, threw on clothes, let Rusty out of his crate, tried to grab the cat, grabbed the birds instead, grabbed my purse and keys and got the hell out of Dodge. Linda had already called 911, but we didn't have any trucks coming, and the fire department is only 5 miles down the road.

One of the guys from down the street realized that the flames were headed for my propane tank, so he ran over and turned it off, then grabbed a hose and started watering down the side of our house, and the grass and trees between the two houses.

By the time the first truck got here, the house next door was 70% engulfed in some very serious flame and it was apparent that there was no putting it out, so they started focusing on saving our house. We have a metal roof, so they had to pry the roof up, because the eaves were on fire. Watching this made me wince, but I'd rather they did it than not!! Then they turned their attention to the woods behind us; which were developing small fires here and there. After they had dragged every available hose up the hill and connected them, it became apparent to me that they weren't aware of the access road behind the hill, so I told them about it and they went up there to shoot water down the hill, instead of trying to shoot it UP the hill.

After it was all over but a few hot spots, which they are still working on at this time, the house next door is completely gone, our house has two broken windows, four sets of melted mini-blinds, a busted up roof and edge piece, and some water and smoke damage. The siding will need to be painted. We lost the wood privacy fence, and a few trees probably will not survive the damage...but our house is standing and in good enough condition to sleep in!!

Sadly, the house north of the house next door took more significant damage than we did. They lost a two story apartment behind their house, and the siding on their main house pretty much melted, but the house was saved. I don't know how much internal damage it received, but it's pretty ugly on the outside now.

I have to tell you - all of the fire departments around here are volunteer fire departments....and these guys were AWESOME. A couple of them, before they got too insane with the water, ran in the house, disconnected my computer and moved everything into the living room...my desk and everything on it, my filing cabinets, my printer, my computer and monitor...everything they could get their hands on and move, so that they didn't get water damaged. How freaking awesome is that?!? I want to thank the Quinlan, Kaufman, Terrell, South Tawakoni, Able Springs, Elmo and Lone Oak Volunteer Fire Departments for doing such an incredible job and saving my house!!

The neighbors are all aware I had surgery two weeks ago, so they were likewise incredible - feeding me, helping me up and down the hill (after the 2nd trip, I was wiped out), and putting plastic over the broken windows. We are truly blessed for the friends we have made in this community.

Pictures will come when my computer is set back up and I find the connector cable for my camera.

*yawn*

All in all...I'd rather have had a nap!