Fire!

OK I'm really annoyed. I just typed up a whole post and blogger lost it! Ugh. So here goes again.

On October 5 we had a fire in our neighborhood. The kids and I were headed to the gym. When we went in the garage I could smell what smelled like someone with a fire in a fireplace. I thought I know it is in the 80s but I don't understand how a crazy Texan thinks that makes it cool enough for a fire! When I opened the garage door I thought I saw smoke. When we got to the end of the street there was no question there was smoke coming from behind the houses on the street our street dead ends into. When we got to the end of the street I could see ash floating in the air and several people running around. I could hear sirens in the background . This was a real fire!

I drove around the block and saw several neighbors congregating at the entrance to the greenbelt. My suspicions were confirmed - fire in the greenbelt. As I was leaving the neighborhood I passed four fire trucks and two police cars. I called Michael to alert him to the fire within a quarter of a mile from our house. I felt a little guilty to leave him home under the circumstances, especially since he was only three days post surgery and still pretty immobile.

The kids were full of questions and wanted to stop to see what was going on. I explained that we needed to stay out of the way so the firefighter could do their jobs.

Michael sent the above picture while I was at the gym. It is taken from the end of our street. I think there ended up being eight firetrucks working on the fire. Luckily, no one was injured and the only damage was to the underbrush in the greenbelt and to several fences.

After dinner we walked down in the greenbelt so the kids could see the damage. The pictures don't really show as much as I had hoped.



The next day a neighbor told us the fire was started by a couple of 10 or 11 year olds that found a lighter in the greenbelt. They were responsible enough to go to a neighbor and ask for a bucket of water when their fire got out of hand! We took this opportunity to have a fire safety talk with our kids. I asked them if they knew what a lighter or matches looked like. Rehm did, Charlotte didn't. So I got some of both out and showed them to her. Rehm's immediate response, "Can we light the candle!" Um, no, we can not! Did you not listen to a thing I just said?