The Fire

We live near a firehouse so it is not strange for us to hear the sirens at all times of the day. Yesterday while we were relaxing after working on some small projects around the house I felt like the sirens were unusually loud and I said to RC – “Are they on our street or something?!?” and then they stopped. That’s when I knew that Arlington's Finest were In. Front. Of. My. House. Before I knew it there were firefighters running into our next door neighbor’s home.

I have never been so close to a house on fire that I literally think I stopped breathing for a second. This was the view out my front door and even while typing this – it gives me the chills.

More fire trucks kept responding and in the end we had six engines, one ambulance and two police cars blocking entrance to our street. RC and I just stood on our front lawn watching all the action and I just could not believe what was happening. Watching a house that looks exactly like yours spewing smoke is not comforting at all. Then all of a sudden the firefighters busted out the window with the water from the fire hose. That’s when I knew how serious it was. I will never forget that sound.

While we didn’t see any flames protruding from the roof like you might see in pictures or on TV, but it was so surreal just standing there watching it. Once firefighters began taking their gear off I knew the fire was out and I was not worried about fire spreading to our home. The fire actually started on a mattress so interpret that however you want…

The whole ordeal unfolded in about an hour and the last truck left about 30 minutes after that. The fire actually started on a mattress so interpret that however you want… Nobody was injured in the fire and they were able to put the fire out quickly so the damage did not extend throughout the entire house but it will probably take a while to repair all the damage. Heartbreaking.

The whole neighborhood came out to see what all the commotion was– so we ended up meeting some of our neighbors that we had not yet met which was great. We live in a neighborhood of some really nice people, some which commented that they were happy it wasn’t our house on fire since they had noticed all the hard work we were putting into it – a nice compliment!

A house fire is probably one of my biggest fears. We have smoke/CO2 alarms on every floor and a fire extinguisher in the kitchen but of course the one thing I didn’t think about was a rescue ladder for the second story rooms. In fact, one of the firefighters mentioned that in our neighbor’s house he saw a rescue ladder still in the box – probably should take that out and have it ready to go. I honestly had never even thought to get one of these but I’m getting one today. I also found some good information on the ACFD website regarding Fire Safety and encourage you to do the same. They will even come out to your home and do a Free Fire Safety Check.

Thanks to the ACFD for their hard work and professionalism!