About 3:00 am Sunday morning, I heard my daughter making some strange sounds. I woke up to a very smoky room. Of course, I panicked. I thought my house was on fire.
I rushed to the room where my husband was sleeping and asked him to help me find the source. Before taking my daughters, dog, and cat out into the frigid, winter air (it was -18 degrees Celsius), I stepped outside to see if it might be coming from another house. But when I looked down the street, I saw a huge wave of smoke billowing from a house across the street. "How could there be such an involved fire without any fire fighters or trucks in sight?" I asked myself.
I called 911 and asked if anyone had reported a fire. They said they hadn't, and they thought I meant it was my house. I told them it wasn't my house, but that it was somewhere close to my house, and they should hurry!
They came within 5 minutes, and found which house the smoke was coming from. They had some trouble getting their hoses hooked up to the fire hydrant because of the cold. About 5 minutes after they arrived, huge, orange flames burst through the roof! They started spraying the roof, as well as the area between the burning house and the house next door, to keep the flames from jumping to the next house. Many of the neighbors began peeking out their windows to see what all the flashing lights and noise were about. Most of us did not go outside, however, because of the cold and because the acrid smoke was stinging our throats and eyes even while we were inside our homes.
After about 90 minutes, the fire was out, and the neighboring houses were safe. We'd all been up for hours, and our houses smelled terrible. Even after the entire day has passed, we're still trying to get the smoky odor out of our house.
It was a terrible way to start our day, but at least no one was in the house, so no one was injured. I imagine it will be quite a shock to the owners of the house when they arrive at home. I'm sure many of us neighbors will help in whatever way we can.
Thank you Alex :-)