Keeping the Home Fires Burning [Literally]

Well, we had an eventful afternoon yesterday. It was completely unplanned and totally out of control. But, to explain yesterday's "fun" I must mentioned that on Monday afternoon Ryan [with our help] burned our Christmas tree along with lots of leaves and sticks from the backyard. I was actually taking some pictures during the burn for a completely unrelated post. 

 Ryan made sure the fire was out that night and it even rained early yesterday morning to help extinguish any remaining embers. When I was driving to the gym early that morning I heard there was a wind advisory with gusts up to 25-30 miles an hour. I mentioned it to Ryan when I got home, an he laughed and said, "You wouldn't want to burn today." I said, "No, there's a fire warning for our area." 

So, we go on with our day...

Rachael went with me to Trader Joe's and David went with his Daddy to "help" him work on the other side of town. 

Rachael and I came home, ate lunch, and I put her down for her nap. I sat down on the computer to do some work and heard a strange noise at the backdoor. I went to check on it and saw lots of white smoke in the far back part of the yard and the wind was blowing it hard toward our back fence and to the thick row of trees and underbrush just on the other side! I went up to our Master bathroom window to get a better look. The whole way up the stairs I was hoping my eyes were deceiving me. But, they weren't. There were flames being pushed at a high rate of speed toward other people's homes and one man's shed filled with high octane fuel!! 

I found the phone and called Ryan all the while putting on shoes [flip-flops, because they were the easiest] and running out the backdoor. He told me to get the fire rake in our shed and try to kill the flames that way. But, when I got to the fire I quickly realized I wasn't going to be putting the fire out by myself. I needed more help than a bucket of water could provide. I hung up with Ryan and immediately called 911. At first the operator told me to call back later if the fire got closer to the house. Ummm, he didn't seem to understand me. I tried to speak clearly, but I was so flustered that I could hardly make the words come out right. I'd love to hear the recording. Once I explained it better he informed me that a truck had been dispatched.
GREAT!

I open the gate so they could get in easier, run back to check the fire, the man who owned the shed with the high octane fuel came out and yelled at me, I had to wrangle Annie The Goat back inside, go inside and get some bread to help lure her, put her in the chicken coop, go check on the fire, come back inside to check Rachael's monitor all while the cold, strong wind is blowing a hot fire further and further away. I felt so helpless. 

Finally, I heard the sirens! Help was on the way. 

When the men arrived they moved very slowly and deliberately. They were in no rush, it was clearly not as big of a deal to them as it was to me. I wanted them to RUN, but they were the professionals, so I tried my best to play it cool. I calmly suggested they might want to send another truck to the road behind our house to get to the fire that way. They radioed back for another truck. When they saw the actual fire, they moved much quicker and started getting to work doing what firemen do. Our next door neighbor came out his back fence with his water hose to keep the fire from spreading closer to his house. The man with the fuel continued to yell, now at the firemen, wanting them to work faster. Ryan and David finally arrived about 30 minutes after I first talked with them. I have no pictures of the inferno or the firemen at work to share. It was just too chaotic and never even crossed my mind. But once they got the fire under control, I was able to relax and even laugh a little, I took a few pictures.
The fire chief arrived in his truck to help too. The view out our front window.
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Also a man with the Forestry Commision brought his bulldozer in case it was needed![no picture of that unfortunately]

David thought the whole event was the great!

Even though he was a bit stand-offish with them, the firemen were SO nice to him.




He really enjoyed learning about fire hydrants [I did too].







From the first site of white smoke 'til the firemen left was about 2 hours.
Rachael slept through the WHOLE thing.