Fire! Fire! Fire!

Ok, so I'm not sure what would go through your head if lightning were to strike your house, but here's what went through mine.

Loud POP and flash of light.

Gee, that seemed close. I wonder if lightning got a tree outside or something.

1 min later.

I smell smoke, I'm going to go check outside to see if anything is burning.

30 seconds later, my MIL shouts that there is smoke coming from a closet.

Never fear Captain Sara, the brave is here.

I told everyone to stand back and not to open the closet door (I watch way too many movies to not know that you're supposed to leave the door shut)

Hmmm, fire extinguisher, fire extinguisher... Not sure we own one of those...

Oh goody, a bucket. Surely I'll be able to save us by filling this bucket with water.

Man, this is taking forever... bucket is half full, most likely I'll be able to extinguish a large fire with half a bucket.

I ran to the closet door and opened (because I'm Captain Sara. The ONLY one allowed to open the door)

Smoke

Just Smoke

Lots of smoke

What am I supposed to do with my water now?

Ok, call 911

Phone's not working

Call 911 again from same phone thinking that maybe miraculously it will begin working.

Still not working

Call from Cell phone

Talk so fast the emergency operator made me stop and repeat much slower.

Get everyone out of the house.

It's raining.

Ok, so I put my MIL, AJ and Sophia in my car and drove out of the garage and left them parked in the lot.

Then I proceed to stand in the rain, staring at my house, willing the fire department to hurry up already.

I call my honey. I was slightly hysterical and I think that maybe that helped him understand that this was NOT A DRILL!

I call Eliza.

Cathy. (working, didn't answer)

My dad.

My boss. (Um, yeah, I won't be in tomorrow because my house is currently on fire!)

My next thought is possibly the most profound and important of the evening.

I have to blog about this!

So out pops my camera phone (which gets very wet and stops working at one point during the evening)

Here is the smoke coming out of the attic vent before the fire department got there.


The first fireman to enter the house with his oxygen pack and everything. (Totally like the movies)



The firemen manning the hose.

Then because it was dark by the time it was all over, I had to go back in the daylight to really assess the damage.

Here's the part that got burnt the most.

This is the wall between a bathroom and the hall closet. The fire started here which is why I didn't see fire when I opened the closet door because the fire was still in the wall.

Ironically, I was filling my bucket with water just 1 foot from where the fire was burning.

Here's the view of that whole wall.

Here's the contents of my hall closet all burnt up and thrown all over my floor.

(way rude, the least they could've done is pick up after themselves...)

They also ripped large chunks out of the ceiling for good measure.

At least good times were had by all.

I'm now living in a hotel

(My life is a lot like Monopoly - $1 to whoever knows what movie that is from)

I plan on living in a hotel until my house is livable again.

Roughly 2-3 months.

All I want for Christmas is my house back.

And maybe a pony.