prairie point

Yesterday our neighbors house caught on fire. Tricia and I were the first to see the smoke. We had gone outside after church to enjoy the great weather and pull weeds. We both smelled smoke and looked up to see a lot of smoke coming from two houses away, where a retired widow lives alone. I walked up the street to her driveway just as two joggers pulled up from the opposite direction. We both saw smoke and flames pouring from a side window. I yelled back to Tricia to call 911 and then started pounding on the door while one of the joggers found a hose and started spraying water toward the window. I thought that the owner was not at home because her car was not in the driveway, but I wante to make sure.

It was only about 5 minutes before the first fire truck arrived. They asked if anybody was at home and when I said “no”, they had the door open with one blow from an axe. In all four trucks arrived plus an ambulance and police . A fire investigator said that he thought it started from a curling iron that got too hot and ignited some window curtains.

All the neighbors knew the owner was at church but none of us knew how to contact her. All we could do after the fire was out and the firemen gone was sit and wait for her to show up. It was only a fifteen minutes until she pulled into the driveway. She knew something had happened when she saw us. I walked in the front door with her while she stood in shock. Her house was destroyed and furniture ruined. Everything was blackened with smoke and the floor of the back rooms were covered with water. Windows were broken, holes chopped in walls and ceiling. She walked from room to room in silence.

Luckily she has a strong family support system. We called her daughters and it wasn’t long before the street began to fill up again - this time with cars and trucks of friends and family come to help. In no time they had the windows and doors boarded up and were packing up clothes.

I saw her car back in the driveway when I came home from work today. I imagine it must be heartbreaking to have to go through all your personal possessions and try to salvage some of the memories.