Friday we had a forest fire. Across the street. No kidding.
While talking to a friend on the phone ( Hi Cat! ) the other day, I noticed smoke in my front yard.
I thought surely someone was burning off leaves, undergrowth, something. Because that’s what people do.
But after a few minutes, it looked like this.
So, I gave the kids explicit instructions to stay on the porch and I went to the road to yell to see if someone was with it. Smart, right? I’m a thinker.
No answer. Except an eerie crackling popping of a spreading fire. And there were now swarms of bugs migrating to my house.
I ran back to the house telling the kids oh-so-calmly that I was going to call the fire department, but everything is just fine. *smile to the kids*
I looked up our local volunteer fire department. Because I don’t want to be known as the fool who called 911 over a leaf pile. But when I got the “If this is an emergency please hang up and dial 911″ message, I debated and dialed 911. I’ll take my chances. I’m used to being a fool.
To the nice woman who said, “911. What’s your emergency?”
I said, “Um, well, I think, maybe .. there’s a forest fire across the street from me.”
And she replied, “Do you see flames, ma’am?”
Me: “Um, no. But my yard is filled with smoke and I can hear crackling.”
Her: “Do you see anyone standing near it?”
Me: “No. But you really might want to send someone to just check it out.”
Her: “Okay, they’re on the way, ma’am.”
One lone, unmarked truck showed up. He walked out to it. And then proceeded to call 5 more trucks.
Semi-serious side note: I then called Matt for a list of what to take in case of an evacuation. “The kids.” No kidding. We decided the deed to the house would be a good one, and the laptop, the camera, and the external hard drive (because that’s where my pics are). Important stuff, you know, for a tech geek. Oh, and I grabbed the baby quilts I made for each of the children. That’s it. My diaper bag and a stroller. Faced with a “you may never see your house or it’s contents moment” what would you take? I was surprised by how little I really needed when it came down to it. My kids, of their own accord picked their favorite 1 or 2 stuffed animals and their Nintendo DS. That’s it. We had each other.
Long story short – they got the fire out, we took them 3 bottles and a pitcher of water (they looked thirsty, I’m nothing if not hospitable to emergency crews) to which one of my neighbors with a mischievous grin said, “They might need more than that to put it out.”
When I offered them the water they said they had the fires contained. I asked if no evacuation was needed, we were okay? ”You’re okay, ma’am, unless you’re the one who set the fires.” W-what?! That’s not what people do.
They were indeed intentionally set. And not by me. For the record. In case you needed blatant reassurance.
By the time I got the kids loaded up for our pre-fire planned trip the trucks were long gone, but there were several sources of smoke again. I dumped some water on them, said a prayer that our home would still be standing when we got back, and left town.
While in town we went to Chik-fil-A and got some kids’ meals. In the meal was a Veggie Tales cd. On the cd I found our family’s theme song. Our theme for the day. And for the duration, I’m afraid.
“Way down south where bananas grow
A flea stepped on an elephant’s toe
The elephant cried
With tears in his eyes
Why don’t you pick on someone your size?Boom boom ain’t it great to be crazy?
Boom boom ain’t it great to be crazy?Giddy and foolish the whole day through.
Boom boom ain’t it great to be crazy?”
