The Fire

Today has been just one of those days. I got a call from Emily's teacher this morning because she was having a headache and it wasn't getting better. I ended up needing to pick her up. After her headache went away, I took her over to my grandma's house with me and she relaxed while I did my usual stuff over there. My mom had JUST picked Emily up and taken her to her house (my parents live next door to my Grandma) and I got a call on my phone from my neighbor. She was frantically shouting, "YOUR YARD IS ON FIRE!!!!!!" I ran out of the house screaming at Rob who was doing some work next door on my dad's boats. He literally leaped and flew out of the boat he was working on and we jumped in our vehicles and took off. Thank God we live just around the corner. We could see the smoke rising up above the trees before we even turned on our street. That is a very sickening feeling.

By the time we got there, the fire trucks were already there and the firemen were in our back yard and doing their jobs. I parked along the curb and ran up to see just how bad things were. I, of course, didn't know what to expect and was afraid to assume anything. I could see that our fence was on fire and this smoke covered our entire yard. Without thinking, I ran into the yard because I just needed to see what was getting destroyed. I had inhaled some of the smoke and then started having these horrible coughing fits. The firefighters were very focused on the area that was around our shed. Rob had a lot of flammable things back there and that is what took the most damage. Also, the entire back fence just kept smoldering along the way. You could see it keep re-igniting because of the wind. We were paranoid that it would start to spread again. All I could think about was Emily's playhouse catching on fire. Rob stood there for a very long time with a water hose spraying down the playhouse while the firefighters kept spraying down the fence.

My aunt's house next door and my other neighbor on the other side also received damage. Both of them had a grass fire that went up into their yard. Both had the fire stop within feet of their houses. It was an extremely frightening and exhausting day.

On a good note, though, (other than the fact that our houses didn't burn down and nobody got hurt), Rob talked to the people at Barloworld today and the job is officially his. They told him he can start on any day he wants to. The job is waiting for him. Wow! That is a HUGE load off!!!!!