When Serious Intrudes

I’ve been operating on adrenaline all day, ever since about 1 a.m. this morning. That’s when I woke up to a strange popping noise. It was like hearing popping corn from inside the popping container. As I rolled over in bed to look out the window, I imagined I might see a very violent hail storm, with pellets hitting our house at high velocity.

But I saw only some evidence of rain on our family room roof below our bedroom window. Then I saw that the back yard next door was lit up. “Why do they have all their backyard lights on at this time of the early morning?” I thought to myself. As I leaned closer to the window, I saw it wasn’t floodlights at all. It was fire. Flames were engulfing the sun room next door.

I woke Wendy and told her to call 9-1-1. As she did that, I threw on a jacket and ran downstairs and outside. Fortunately, I sleep nearly dressed with sweatpants, t-shirt and socks (I get cold at night). Afterwards, I wished I would have at least thrown on a pair of slippers too.

Outside, the street was dark and deserted at just before 1 a.m. No sign of our next door neighbors who live inside the home, flames from which were now shooting over the roof into the towering maple tree in back. Our neighbor from across the street came out of her house at nearly the same time I did and asked if our neighbors had gotten out.

“I don’t know,” I said.

She told me I should try and knock on the door. That was a bit scary as I could feel the intense heat and smell the smoke as I approached the front entrance. Rang the bell and knocked, but all seemed dark and quiet inside. So I went to one of the bedroom windows just in case they were still asleep (hard to believe with all the racket, but you never know). I knocked and kept knocking as hard as I could on the window. Then I saw the front door open.

Shortly, thereafter the family emerged, mother, father, teen-aged daughter, daughter-in-law and baby. They escaped with the clothes on their backs and that was about it. Well, they were wearing better footwear than my thin dress socks. THEN the police arrived, with the firefighters right on their heels.

What a relief! I know my next door neighbor takes great pride in his home and has made many updates himself over the years, building the sun room addition himself. But homes can be replaced. Lives cannot.

One of the firemen asked me to check on the neighbor on the opposite side. So I banged on his door too, but he was already up. “They’re going to need more fire trucks. Probably four or five,” he said, pulling on a shirt. I can’t remember whether I told him I would pass his advice along to the fire chief.

He stayed near his home, making sure the flames didn’t reach his garage. I guess I should have done the same as the intense heat melted the vinyl siding on our attached garage. It’s funny the things you think about and the things you don’t when you’re faced with such a dire situation. And how adrenaline takes over. It was a while before I realized that I had quite a bloody knuckle from knocking.

Later, one of the regional news websites said the family was roused by smoke alarms. Hmmm, never heard those. I supposed it’s possible. Later, I saw another article on a separate local news website. It included this:

"A neighbor was awoken by the sound of the flames and saw the roof burning on the home next door. He ran outside while his wife called 9-1-1 and began banging on the door. When no one answered, he began frantically banging on the windows and screamed.”

I don’t remember screaming but I could have. Either way, it sounds pretty close to what I remember. And Wendy was happy that she, as “his wife”, got some credit too.

I posted some pictures below. The refuse containers are mine and were stored next to the garage.

By the way, I had a rather humorous blog planned for this week, almost all set to go. Then real life intruded in a rather serious way. I just hope it doesn’t happen anytime soon.