15 December, 2008

A Somber Morning

I was going to tell you all about the Christmas party on Saturday night, but our neighbourhood has had quite an eventful morning and I'm going to tell you about that instead.

I was out of bed at 7:52 after I thought I heard some kids getting excited about seeing a fire truck. Naturally I wondered why they weren't in school (I thought it was later than 8am).

Then the siren got louder and closer and I looked out the window.
There was smoke streaming out the door jam on the main floor and from underneath the eaves. The yelling I heard was our next-door neighbour helping Mrs. L. (she's the only one that lived there) away from her house and getting the attention of the fire truck. About a minute later, there were flames shooting up from the back end of the roof.

I debated about taking pictures and posting them - this is a tragedy as much as a spectacle,
and I have no idea what might have caused the fire - but right around Christmas (and in winter) when most of us have Christmas lights up and quite possibly a space heater going, it's important to remember to make sure that all our lights and heaters are up to code and used as safely as possible.

I saw smoke at 7:52am. This was twenty minutes later:


This is after all the fire trucks/fighters have left*:



Please continue to pray for Mrs. L. It looks like whatever is in her (detached) garage will be fine, but I only saw the firefighters recover a single trunk from the house.

*These photos were both taken today so I'm not sure why the dates don't match.

5 comments:

Brenda said...

Oh goodness! Poor Mrs. L, we'll offer her up in prayer this Christmas.

And okay, my tea was really good. You are a close second:) Thank you for sending it. We southerners have to dump way more sugar in it though to make it a dessert which is how we like our tea.

I was going to tell you something else but the stench of lysol has clouded my brain. I'm deep cleaing today and am about done with the kitchen.

Beth said...

Oh my goodness. I am so glad that everyone was ok.

Anonymous said...

I'm so sorry for your neighbor. I will keep her in my prayers. I was planning to take and post pictures of our holiday decor today, but fortunately our excuse isn't so sad. We're just jet lagged and our place is a mess!

Jess said...

Oh man, this is terrible. Poor Mrs. L! But I'm glad everyone was OK.

Beck said...

Poor Mrs. L.
A friend of The Girl's lost EVERYTHING in a house fire last week. Every freaking thing. Even the pet rabbit. It's sad.