Well, since I've been up all night, and can't stop from thinking about it, I thought I might as well post.
Starts off like any normal Sunday evening. Wife's getting dinner ready, I'm feeding the tank wondering how I'm gonna sneak all the GB stuff into the house without the boss finding out, kids are running around like they've just snorted 20 pounds of crank.
We start eating, discussing the weekend and what everyone did, and the wife says "What's burning? Did I leave the stove on?" As she gets up to check the stove, she passes glances out the back door and yells, "The house is on fire! The house is on fire!"
Seeing the panicked look on her face, I tell everyone to get up and get out of the house through the front door and call 911 when they're outside. I go to take a look at what exactly is on fire.
Sure enough, the back of the house is a glow of orange and yellow. I run out in to the backyard and start assessing the situation.
Let's see 5 foot flames, umm more flames, plastic burning, propane cylinder, satellite dish, burning lawn mower, more flames, grill, siding, PROPANE CYLINDER!
Grabbed the cylinder out of the flames and sent it flying across the yard. Took the grill, which also had a propane tank connected to it, and pulled that out of the way. Picked up a rake (which happeed to be in the flames) and started trying to smother some of the flames with loose dirt.
Pull out the hose turn the water on and nothin. Forgot I shutoff the water two weeks ago. Crap!
At this point, my wife comes back to see why I wasn't out front yet. She see's me dragging the lawn mower (electric), in flames, across the yard. She starts filling pots and pans with water so we can extinguish what little flames remain.
Since the fire is mostly out (lawn mower is still burning), I dash off to the basement to check and see if there is any fire down there. As I'm entering the house, I see out of the corner of my eye, the Fire Chief arrive. I get to the basement and yank a few ceiling tiles out of the way and start looking. Terrible smell (I hate the smell of plastic burning), but everything seems ok.
Go back upstairs to check on the wife and kids and everyone is cold but fine. I get them their coats.
Yay! The fire dept showed up! I bring them downstairs so they can use their expensive infrared camera to check and make sure there is no fire in the basement. Another group is out back using their camera to check for any smoldering hotspots and cool them down with the water can.
After all the excitement settles, it's the Chief, his assistant, and me sitting in the back yard waiting for the Inspector to show up so he can make his assessment and put together a report. I'm staring at my hands which are starting to hurt a little (I don't do yard work, so why I would pick up a rake that is on fire is beyond me), Chief turns to me and asks if I'm ok.
It's at this point that I realize I ran "into" a fire and started yanking tanks filled with gas out of the flames. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
Thankfully everyone is ok, and we escaped with relatively minor damage to the house. Only casualties were my sneakers. Apparently when you step on melting plastic, it tends to stick to the botton of whatever steps on it. Chief gave me an application, and said I should join.
Marcelo -
Starts off like any normal Sunday evening. Wife's getting dinner ready, I'm feeding the tank wondering how I'm gonna sneak all the GB stuff into the house without the boss finding out, kids are running around like they've just snorted 20 pounds of crank.
We start eating, discussing the weekend and what everyone did, and the wife says "What's burning? Did I leave the stove on?" As she gets up to check the stove, she passes glances out the back door and yells, "The house is on fire! The house is on fire!"
Seeing the panicked look on her face, I tell everyone to get up and get out of the house through the front door and call 911 when they're outside. I go to take a look at what exactly is on fire.
Sure enough, the back of the house is a glow of orange and yellow. I run out in to the backyard and start assessing the situation.
Let's see 5 foot flames, umm more flames, plastic burning, propane cylinder, satellite dish, burning lawn mower, more flames, grill, siding, PROPANE CYLINDER!
Grabbed the cylinder out of the flames and sent it flying across the yard. Took the grill, which also had a propane tank connected to it, and pulled that out of the way. Picked up a rake (which happeed to be in the flames) and started trying to smother some of the flames with loose dirt.
Pull out the hose turn the water on and nothin. Forgot I shutoff the water two weeks ago. Crap!
At this point, my wife comes back to see why I wasn't out front yet. She see's me dragging the lawn mower (electric), in flames, across the yard. She starts filling pots and pans with water so we can extinguish what little flames remain.
Since the fire is mostly out (lawn mower is still burning), I dash off to the basement to check and see if there is any fire down there. As I'm entering the house, I see out of the corner of my eye, the Fire Chief arrive. I get to the basement and yank a few ceiling tiles out of the way and start looking. Terrible smell (I hate the smell of plastic burning), but everything seems ok.
Go back upstairs to check on the wife and kids and everyone is cold but fine. I get them their coats.
Yay! The fire dept showed up! I bring them downstairs so they can use their expensive infrared camera to check and make sure there is no fire in the basement. Another group is out back using their camera to check for any smoldering hotspots and cool them down with the water can.
After all the excitement settles, it's the Chief, his assistant, and me sitting in the back yard waiting for the Inspector to show up so he can make his assessment and put together a report. I'm staring at my hands which are starting to hurt a little (I don't do yard work, so why I would pick up a rake that is on fire is beyond me), Chief turns to me and asks if I'm ok.
It's at this point that I realize I ran "into" a fire and started yanking tanks filled with gas out of the flames. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
Thankfully everyone is ok, and we escaped with relatively minor damage to the house. Only casualties were my sneakers. Apparently when you step on melting plastic, it tends to stick to the botton of whatever steps on it. Chief gave me an application, and said I should join.
Marcelo -
, glad everything is ok
