FIRE

Our house nearly caught fire today. 

Nearly. 

It's safe.

We're safe.

But like wow.

It was a close thing. 

And it's just....crazy. The series of events that unfolded. 

It probably started back when my head manager was doing the schedule for this week.

When he asked me if I wanted to have Memorial Day off.

Because it's a holiday, and me being full time, I get paid for the holiday even if I'm not working it. 

-And if I am working it? Time and a half. So yay! 

And having Memorial Day off would have been great. 

Because my family was meeting up that evening to celebrate a birthday.

So having the entire day off would have been nice.

Only.

I remembered that the manager over my department had stated that he wouldn't be there Monday because he had the day off. 

And if wasn't there, that meant that I would need to be there. Because Monday is when we did the fish count. And if neither one of us were there....it wouldn't get done. 

So knowing this, the head manager scheduled me to work Monday.

But decided to give me a three day weekend. 

Which woot!

Because I hardly ever get Saturdays off. So the knowledge I would have three days away from work? 

AWESOME.

I literally had no plans for this weekend....at least to go out.

My plans were to write. and write. and write some more. 

And that's what I was doing today.

Saturday. 

The day started normally enough.

I woke up. Went to write.

My roomies woke up.

Decided to do yardwork. 

Most of it involved getting rid of the 'snow' coating our yard. And by snow....I mean cotton.

As we have cotton trees all over the neighborhood and during the month of June...yah the cotton just floats around and lands everywhere like a constant mini snow storm.

And since the roomies are allergic to said cotton.

They went to work today to gather it up.

By mowing the front lawn, and mowing the tall grass in the backyard. Plus, getting rid of the cobwebs. 

Then it was onto watering the yard and the gardens and such to get it all wet and moist to a) also help get rid of the cotton and b) weed the area. 

Seriously, I was rather impressed with all the yardwork they did. 

That they had the energy, to be doing basically...well everything. :) 

Me? Yah, I worked on writing. 

But towards dinner time.

Kikay decided that she wanted to borrow the TV for a bit for a game she's playing. 

And I hung out with her for a bit.

Managed to finish a chapter.

Decided to take a nap....and after half an hour, like around 6pm, got back up.

Did some more internet things....but then decided that I wanted to take a shower, just to help stir the ideas in my mind.

-Because you always think better in the shower. 

Afterwards?

I came out, grabbed my laptop from the couch, and decided that I would go upstairs to write there, away from the game Kikay was playing --which oddly enough...she wasn't supposed to have still been playing it. She'd said she'd only be on for a couple of hours...but she was nearing or just past the three hour mark. So I kinda figured that she would be there for another hour or so because it's easy to get caught up in. 

--Apparently she'd encountered a glitch or something in the game and was trying to just finish her task. 

So it was....idk....sometime around 6:30 by that point when I went upstairs.

I sat my laptop down. Was getting ready to settle in, I was sitting, my hands were on the keys to continue on with my next chapter....

When I heard this sudden crackling sound. 

It was really loud.

Coming from the backyard. 

Which, I tend to be rather sensitive to noise, so I noticed it pretty quickly. 

It sounded like fireworks really. Those little ground fire ones that just kinda crackle and spark for thirty seconds to a minute before going out. 

But it wasn't yet firework season. So why would there be fireworks?

My next thought was that maybe it was an issue with the A/C. As the unit was back there, the sound was coming from that part of the house, and the AC was on and running. 

So...perhaps in my roomies' yardwork spree....something had ended up getting caught up against the AC, and the AC was struggling to still work because of the lesser airflow.

So I got up to investigate.

And that's when I saw the smoke.

It was thick, greyish white, and looked like it was billowing from the house next door. (South of us)

I literally had thought that it was coming from the neighbor's small backyard, as I was aware he had a BBQ and did BBQ on occasion. And with how thick the smoke was...I couldn't see an origin point and it seemed thickest right there.

So my thought was that whatever he was cooking....he was creating a lot of smoke off of it.

Or if he wasn't cooking he had quite the smokey little campfire going. 

My first thought, beyond being annoyed at all the smoke, was that it was nothing.

So I left the window, sat back down on the couch....stood right back up again.

Just to doublecheck.

To investigate, to see if I could see the source.

And that's when I saw the flames. 

These little flames. Probably six-ten inches tall, creeping along the fence marking the edge of our backyard. 

-Which side step in the story. 

Our backyard is tiny. Maybe 10 feet across at most? 

And beyond that fence? Was a drop off. A hill that our house was built on top of. 

Behind us was a no man's land really. The hillside with cottonwood trees and various weeds, a road at the bottom, and more houses/farmland beyond. 

And there were these flames.

Crawling along that part of the fence.

My thought? "Well, crap, somebody got careless with their BBQ and started a fire!!" 

I don't even know when I saw the rest of it. 

Don't know where I was standing. If I was inside or outside. I don't remember.

But at some point I could see that the flames weren't just crossover from the neighbor's backyard. 

No, the flames were on the hillside.

I could see a tree on fire.

I could see grass burning. 

It definitely wasn't from the neighbor's house as I could see the flames further down along the hillside. 

Chatting with the neighbor's later, it looks like the fire started either behind my neighbor's house, or behind the house next to his house. 

In any case.

I saw the flames traveling along our fence line.

Had the briefest moment of 'I'm dreaming. This has to be a dream. This can't be happening!'

-Because yesterday morning (Friday morning) a house a neighborhood over from us...had caught fire. And burnt to the ground. So the fact there were flames here? At our house? It had to be a dream. 

It wasn't. 

So, I reacted.

I darted from the window. 

Yelling to the roomies. 

FIRE!!!!!! 

I think I said it twice....I think.

To their credit the roomies reacted instantly. 

Darting up the stairs, coming from their room. 

Though they didn't know how bad it was.

They'd believed that it could be put out with a bucket of water.

With some blankets. 

I knew that wasn't the case.

The fire was bigger than that. I knew because of the smoke.

And as they were darting around getting together those things, I grabbed my phone -which was by my laptop and called 911. 

At the same time my roomie was like "CALL 911!!" 

Already on it. 

The lady on the other end picked up.

"What's the address of your emergency?" 

I gave it---well I garbled it. 

My current address is similar to the address of the home I grew up in.

So like I gave the wrong street name originally.

But quickly corrected myself.

And said. THERE'S A FIRE behind our HOUSE. 

-She had to ask for clarification on that address, which I was able to give it clearer.

It was then the procedure of "Where is it, what is it, can you see the flames, where's the fire, how big are the flames?" 

-When I said 6-10 inches, I could tell she was like. O.o "that's a little fire."

But that's because I hadn't seen anything bigger yet. 

The flames were still little, licking along the fence. 

And I was like "It's spreading! It's growing!" 

--Honestly I don't know what I garbled out, but it basically was "It's on the hill behind our house, it's reached the fence, it's growing fast, HURRY." 

No, it was Kikay who saw the bonfire. 

They'd realized that the flames couldn't be put out via a bucket of water or blankets.

So the roomies were unwinding the hose at the front of the house.

Trying to figure out if they'd have better luck going through the house to the deck to get the water raining down above, or go down the side.

She was the one to see the Cottonwood tree closest to our house go up in a wall of flames. 

Thankfully she had the presence of mind to shut the door to the deck, and retreat back outside.

As by that point, I'd pounded on the neighbor's doors. Had the operator lady reassure me that the fire department was on their way, and said that she was hanging up now. 

Which is when I returned to the house.

-At some point...I know it was after the phone call, but before the firetrucks arrived, I'd gone back inside.

I think it's because the neighbors were yelling at us to get out of the house, and so I ran back inside to be like "ROOMIES THEY SAY GET OUT OF THE HOUSE NOW!"

And I probably took that moment to grab my laptop before I darted outside.

Roomies soon to follow

-Though they ended up darting back inside to grab their car keys.

Why?

Because Kikay was like "We gotta move our cars from the garage." 

You know...just in case the house caught fire.

It was probably a good idea to not provide more explosive material for the fire.

My car was parked on the street.

So it wasn't in the garage.

But someone --as the whole neighborhood was turning up to see what was happening and make sure everyone was out of their houses-

Was like "You should move your car so the firetruck could get in.

Ha.

Ha....No.

I couldn't.

Why?

Because my keys were in my room. I knew where they were. 

But my room was in the basement.

My room was the closest to the flames I'd seen crawling along the fence. 

I had no idea if the flames had spread into the yard. If they'd reached the house.

But no way was I going to run into our house and down to my room to grab keys just to move my car. 

Nope. Nu-uh. 

My roomies though?

No they darted back into the house to grab their car keys to move their cars.

Only....Kikay couldn't find hers. 

She was in the house far too long for my liking...

But thankfully when I was about to go in and find her.

She reappeared. Saying she couldn't find her keys.

Remembered she had a spare.

Went back in to grab them after handing me some of her things. 

-As she'd grabbed a few more items than me. (I had my phone and laptop) 

-Though I had grabbed my shoes and she hadn't. ^^;; Priorities I suppose lol. 

Discovered that the switch to turn off her car alarm was dead in that set of keys...so when she went to unlock her car and turn it on....the alarm went off...and her key wouldn't work. 

Helpful neighbors told her to put the car into neutral. 

So they pushed it out of the garage to stop in the driveway. 

And then we all were encouraged to get as far away as possible.

As thick billowing columns of smoke were rising behind our house. Behind the houses to either side of us. 

So we retreated across the street to the neighbor's yard there. Where they were quick to offer us water, and assistance and comfort.

Which my roomie desperately needed. As she was the owner of our house. 

A house that she may be just in the middle of watching burn down. 

To say she was panicking isn't an understatement. 

But we were safe. 

We'd all gotten out.

….well except my fish....

*shakes head* People were like "Do you have any pets in there?!" 

Ha....yah like five small betta tanks and one very large 125 gallon fish tank.

But they're fish....in water....

So I kinda figured that they'd be safe for a while IF the fire got in the house.

In any case. 

People were yelling "Where's the fire department?! They're just down the road!! What's taking them so long?!?!" 

Which...really....I think only like...seven minutes at most had passed when I placed the call?

It was all happening pretty quick.

And like about the point when people were asking where the firetrucks were, I could hear the sirens in the distance.

--again because I have good hearing. ^^;;

So like... I was like "No! I hear them. They're coming!" 

And plus, I'd said that the fire was behind the house. That there was a road back there. 

So I was guessing most of the trucks would end up back there.

We had 2 police cars show up first on our street. 

-Kinda slowed by the line of cars all deciding they needed to drive by the fire Right. Then.--

But they got the streets blocked off.

Went to investigate down the right side of our house. 

And hopefully went "Yep that's a fire!!" to the fire trucks. 

-As I could see them sending police first to confirm the fire was actually there.

Thankfully I could hear the firetrucks pull on the street behind our house. 

And two fire trucks and a brushfire truck showed up on our street.

Hoses were unwound and hooked to the fire hydrants.

And yah....they proceeded to put the fire out.

-I saw an article later that stated if the fire department had arrived only a couple minutes later....some of the houses could have sustained actual fire damage. 

I feel like it was only 15 minutes later that they'd put out the fire.

Though really, it could have lasted an hour. 

It was around 6:30ish...maybe even 6:45ish when I made the call. 

And my roomies and I finally gathered up the courage to go ask if the fire was out, if it was alright to go back into our house a little over an hour later. So about 8pm. 

So long as our house wasn't smoke filled...we would be alright to go back inside.

Unfortunately for us, it was filled with smoke, so we opened up the windows and the doors, turned on the fans before retreating back outside to wait for the air to get less...cloudy. 

But once we got that all done.

That's when I went to investigate our backyard.

See what the damage was.

As the fire was out.

The crews were now focusing on hosing down hotspots. 

So I ventured in the backyard to see....that our fence had almost completely melted. 

--which there had been talk on replacing that fence anyways

That the cottonwood trees behind our house were blackened from base to probably twelve feet or so up. (the tops were still green) 

But our yard itself?

Untouched. 

The deck?

Untouched.

The house?

Untouched.

The fire had come right up to our fence....and hadn't burned any further. 

Which, if you remember earlier in this story....

My roommates had done the yardwork today.

They'd soaked the yard to pull weeds and help get rid of the cotton.

They'd trimmed down the tall grass growing in our backyard. Leaving it short. 

They'd washed away the cobwebs and such that could have also caught fire.

They'd even hosed down the wooden steps leading down to the backyard earlier, leaving them damp and unable to hold a flame--as the heat was strong enough from the fire that our bushes between our neighbor's house and our house...had wilted and shriveled from the heat.

Who knows how the stairs would have done. 

It was nothing short of amazing. 

We did discover another hour or so later, when Kikay decided that she wanted to hose down the deck, to make sure it was safe and that no hot embers/ashes were there....that we discovered our deck had sustained a little bit of damage.

Two of the posts....on the far side of the deck, away from the main fire....had caught fire...

We don't know when it went out---but possibly the firehoses had put it out. 

But our guess was that an ember had flown up there and burnt a bit before being put out. 

It was very little damage compared to what it could have been.

Our house. Everything we had still inside. And ourselves. We were all safe.  

Do we know what started this fire that burned the hillside and threatened half a dozen homes? 

Not really no.

There's rumors circulating that there were young kids/teenagers seen running away...

But it's hard to know for sure yet. 

The origin point isn't yet known. The source of the fire isn't yet known. It could have been a careless cigarette butt tossed in the grass, it could have been a spark from a car, it could have been kids playing with fire....it's hard to know. 

In any case.

I did discover that I was probably the first one or one of the first to call 911. That I was the first one to react to the fire, as the address listed as the source of the fire was the address I'd given the operator on the phone. 

So yay for quick reflexes lol. 

^^;; I tend to be pretty good under pressure. After all, my work throws stress at me all the time and I tend to handle those well. lol. 

In any case....it saved everyone's houses. ^^;; 

I think another deck got a bit burnt as well, but most of the fire damage was to a couple other fences besides ours. 

Others mentioned that things they had in the backyard like furniture and umbrellas and such had melted or been singed. 

But the houses themselves? 

They were fine. 

We were fine.

We were safe. 

Though my roomies and I did spend the next couple of hours entertaining all the curious neighbors who came into our backyard to see the damage. 

There were cars on the road below us in a constant stream as well, coming to look at the burned hill.

-My roomies and I went to see for ourselves later. Yah. Our fence looks the worst out of it all. The hillside blackened. 

Still later, around 10pm or so. The Power company sent out a guy to check out the trees in the firezone. 

As there were powerlines nearby those burnt trees. And the power company doesn't like it when trees knock out their powerlines. So they sent a guy to come and see if there were any potential hazards. 

The result? 

One of the two cottonwood trees behind our house will need to be cut down, along with a smaller unknown tree that had been growing between the two. 

While the other one sustained surface damage...it was still sound and away from the powerlines so therefore not an issue.

My roomies tell me that the tree that's coming down is the 'pollinator' of the cottonwood trees. The male while all the other trees are the females. So with this taking out of this tree...next year...we may experience a lot less cotton....maybe....we'll see. 

In any case.

Our house still has quite the smokey smell to it. And we're all still kinda coming down from the adrenaline rush of almost seeing our house burn down.

But I'm so grateful we're safe.

So grateful my roomies had been inspired and had the energy to do so much yardwork today.

But I'm also grateful that I was there.

I mean, the fire started when I would have been home from work anyways.

But I'm grateful that I was there, that I wasn't asleep in my room (because half an hour earlier I had been) 

Grateful that Kikay had had issues with her game....as if she'd finished on time, she would have gone upstairs to watch a show with our roommate, leaving me to reclaim the TV downstairs.

I wouldn't have been in the living room.

I wouldn't have been as close to hearing the fire.

I wouldn't have been able to react so quickly because I would have been elsewhere where I may not have been able to hear it.

But I'm also grateful to my Dad. 

For the multiple priesthood blessings he's placed on our home. 

Because that cottonwood tree?

It had been close to our deck.

No branches were overhanging it luckily.

But the burnt branches and leaves?

They stopped like four feet above the deck.

So the fire had roared up to tower over our deck, nearly as high if not as high as our roofline.

Yet...did not cause any fire damage in that spot at all. 

The house. Completely protected. 

Safe. 

*exhales* 

It's such a relief.

Such a relief to know that people on both sides of the veil are looking out for us and our home. Are protecting us. 

Until you next see these words;

I'll be watching the leaves.

Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi