Fire!!

Let me share with you all what happened to us two weeks ago. As I lay in bed in the predawn light and listened to the freight train going by the house I hear Gary go outside and come back in saying "Oh *****", (insert here any word of your choice). I roll out of bed to discover that the freight train is actually the fire currently blazing in our chimney. Gary looks at me and says, "Well, the good news is the sparks and embers shooting out of the chimney are landing on snow." What followed was a flurry of well coordinated movements to put out the fire in the fire place. The fire can still be heard in the chimney along with debris falling onto the damper and the part of the chimney we can see is glowing "with the fire of a thousand suns."

We sort of give each other a what now look and I do the most natural thing in the world. I start up Gary's computer and google "chimney fires." I promptly go to a "do it yourself" page while Gary opens windows to air out the house. The "do it yourself" solution is to "get out of the house and dial 911." I actually had to pause for a minute and wonder just how this is "do it yourself." Gary calls 911 and I begin yelling at the kids to get dressed. Bella just yells back that she needs to shower first. As I go downstairs I hear Gary telling the dispatcher that we are not yet out of the house b/c we are "getting dressed and putting on socks."

Downstairs I find Andrew and Julia sitting on the bathroom counter while Bella gets ready to shower. I should point out here that the basement is full of smoke. Gary and I are apparently so calm about the situation that our kids are not too concerned. After discovering that the fire department is on the way Julia begins to cry. I tell her not to worry, that everything is okay and she just looks at me and wails, "We will have to move again." She just recovered from last years move and does not want to do it again.

We grab everything the kids will need for school and head out to the cars. As we listen to my pager to keep track of the fire departments location Bella begins to talk nonstop about how she will always remember this day for the rest of her life.

"This is the worst day ever." Julia is still a little upset and Gary and I keep trying to tell her that everything is all right. "This is the worst fire ever," she continues to say. I finally ask her why and she just wails "Because we don't have any food in the car." This is how Gary and I realized that Julia is going to be just fine.

Shortly thereafter 4 vehicles from the fire department and the ambulance pull up. My friends from the ambulance thank me for having them out to the house and promptly invite the kids into the ambulance. Needless to say, the fire has burned itself out by this time. The wonderful volunteer firefighters have removed the chimney cap and begin using a series of mirrors and flashlights to inspect the chimney.

And the verdict is; The chimney is clean! Because we are who we are, we can not have just any old chimney fire, we have to have a "mystery" chimney fire. The fire chief can't figure out how it started. Everyone waved goodbye and headed back to town and Gary and I quickly got the kids to the bus stop on time. It was just back to business as usual for us.