"Sally? It's Sandy. Um.....I just wanted to let you know that if you see fire trucks, everything is ok....the fire got out of hand and they called the fire department. Your John is ok. Gotta go, bye."
Hmmmm, says I. Should I panic? I refer back to my military wife training. If I get a message that John is ok, then he's ok. He knows to call me once the 'emergency' is over. And someone will either call or come by the house if I am needed. And, here's the best part, John was a trained firefighter in the military and used to teach basic firefighting. So, I sit tight, knitting and sewing in the studio, talked to my mom when she called to chat. Waited about 2 hours, tried John's cell phone - no answer. Tried neighbor's phone - no answer. Ok, still not panicked.
About 2 hours later, Sandy calls again to let me know that the fire is now contained, my John is ok (in spite of a miscommunication with the firefighters who thought my John was having problems breathing - turned out it was someone else with asthma), her John was being taken to the hospital with 2nd degree burns on his arm but everything was ok. I asked her if she needed my help or my company...she said no, she was fine and would call if she changed her mind.
About 4 hours later, my John arrives home, dirty, sweaty, smelly, and bone tired. I jumped right over and gave him a big hug. Did a quick visual check to make sure he REALLY was ok...then ordered him to strip in the garage, leave his clothes where they stood, and hit the shower! I had a cold beer waiting for him when he was done. We talked about the day, like most folks do, then he went to bed and slept all night.
I managed to get pictures of the emergency vehicles (except the paramedics who were sitting along the road, just in case they were needed, for about 3 hours - somehow I missed THAT picture!). John said today there were about 15 firefighters from several different firehouses, along with my John, John our neighbor, his son and his son-in-law. The fire was going fine on this one ginormous pile when a huge gust of wind arced the fire over to a standing cedar tree and it exploded into flame. Fortunately, the fire mainly burned on the ground and only burned the leaves and debris left over from the winter. It didn't get to our neighbor's fenceline on the north. It burned about 10 feet into the neighbor's field on the south BUT, only the debris and never was a real threat there.
Here are the best of the 5 pictures I took from the front of my house yesterday. This is the staging of the vehicles at the end of the cul-de-sac. All the vehicles, including several more pickups and a water tanker were able to either go down the driveway there and drive out into the upper field, or drive along that fenceline and get to the upper field that way.
Ya know, it's never boring here in the country!
Thanks for stopping by.
