More About the Fire

I have gotten so many wonderful comments from all of you on the post of our house fire. Thank you all for your kind thoughts and well wishes. There were also alot of questions, so I thought I'd elaborate a little more. I was asked, "who knocked on the door?" This was a miracle all in itself. Our neighbor across the street and over a little ways heard their dog barking this strange bark. They were watching TV in their bedroom. They got up to see what the dog was barking at and could see an orange glow under their carport. He went outside and saw it was our house.

The fire truck were already on the way when I came out of the house, but it took a little while (seemed like an hour) because it is a volunteer fire dept. It took about 5 minutes, I think. When they arrived, the fire had already spread to the kids side of the house and was melting the siding off the house next door. All the men were out there with a hose trying to keep that house from catching fire. I was amazed at how fast it spread - very scary. You always plan what you'll grab if that were to happen, but there REALLY is not time! There are times when I think, "why didn't you grab that one more thing?" But when I think about it, I made a conscious decision to focus on the boys and making sure they were safe. Cade was SCREAMING and wanted to be picked up, but my arms were full of scrapbooks. I wasn't dropping them at that point, so I made him follow me screaming the whole way. Days later, when I went back to the neighbors to pick those books up, they were so heavy that I could only carry a couple at a time. It was pure adrenaline pumping in the moment. I was trying to stay calm because I didn't want to upset the kids more, but I finally figured that if I couldn't scream now, when could I. I started screaming to my neighbor, making sure she had called 911.

The fire was compounded by the fact that I had just filled up my 30 gallen tank of my truck that night, and the fact that all of Richard's shotgun shells were it the storeroom going off, it was crazy.

Right after they put the fire out, the firemen started bringing things out that they thought we might want. We started stacking things under this neighbor's carport (can you tell that they are very special people to me?) Bryce's friend, Lyle, who has been in posts before, is their son. We love them. They brought out dresser drawers, my charred jewelery box (I found one diamond earing). They found my brand new studded leather Coach purse! Of course, it was ruined, but my wallet was fine. That was very exciting because we both had our credit cards, licenses, and all that stuff you don't want to have to collect again (he got his when he ran back in).

I still get frustrated when the kids come home with a project that they need baby pictures for. The only snapshots I have are some that my mom put together for me. It's a good bit, but every once in a while I can remember a special page in a scrapbook that I worked so hard on. That is very depressing, I just can't focus on it. I had ALOT of scrapbooks that burned. All my honeymoon pictures are gone. To this day, I still have a bad attitude toward scrapbooking. To have spent SO much time doing those great pages only to have them burn up. I don't think I'll ever pick it up again. That's alright. I am thankful that my kids were young enough that I was able to replace some of their photographer's pictures because they still had the negatives. That is a big blessing. Another blow was that anything in the attic was completely destroyed. Richard had a trunk full of all his high school memories. It also had all of his stuff from when he played ball at LSU. That was really sad.

I thing that is funny and frustrating at the same time, is that you constantly look for things that you don't own anymore. It's usually the stupid stuff like a tupperware bowl or a serving tray. I have to sit and think, when did I buy that. Everything is divided in Pre-fire/post-fire.

Anyway, I was asked about the heat detectors. Heat detectors are installed by the people who install security systems. They are connected through the security system, so they are monitored, and the whole house will be screaming if they go off. They are not fool proof, the fire pretty much has to be right by it to set if off, but we have them by the hot water heater, electric boxes, things like that. I would have just put regular smoke detectors in the attic, but they say with all the dust, they will go off for no reason. I will never live in a house again without heat detectors. I even have all of my smoke detectors through the security system as well. I am pretty much a freak about it! Go figure!

Oh well, hope I didn't bore you. I really appreciate all of the kind words that were shared with me. They really helped.