Tag: Fire

Was putting the kids to sleep and he was just about down when the wife screamed for me. I ran out of bed and looked out the window but all I could see in the front yard was thick grey smoke, so thick it activated the motion detector lights. She said the neighbor’s house was on fire and I could just hear the first fire truck siren approaching.

I threw on my shoes and saw that the neighbors was pretty heavily involved with flames coming out of one side of the house. I started screaming for her and jumped her fence to run up to her door, but then my other neighbor started yelling ‘we got her over here!’. Guess I didn’t have to do my Rambo routine on her front door.

I then looked down the road and saw the fire truck was stuck in the main parking lot, unsure which dirt road to follow. I took off at a full sprint to get their attention, and then waved them back to the house on fire (again running). I must have sucked down a ton of smoke because I’m still coughing nearly an hour later.

The house was an old 40s beach shack with numerous ‘less than code’ updates. They had to saw through the roof to pour water down into the fire, and I’m not sure how much damage was caused.

The fire department went to three or four alarms. The first and second due pumpers from all 4 stations within 10 miles (North Beach, Dunkirk, Huntingtown, Prince Frederick) along with the two Towers, at least two rescue squads and three tankers that I could see. The first due engine, tower, and rescue squad were on our road, but on the main road I counted 8 other engines and other vehicles. God forbid their was another fire in the Northern part of the county.

Anyway, she’s ok, if a bit shocked. The Red Cross was here in 20 minutes and are taking her away for the night. I can still here the engine revving up the pumps every now and then as they battle extensions (this was a really old house).

In the background of this photo you can see some of the trucks lined up on the main road.

I’m going to try to clean out my lungs.