houses fire

Yesterday my phone rang early.

I was up. I saw it was a good friend and cheerfully answered. "We had a bit of excitement here last night." He began.

My mind went much faster than his words. He did not sound like his wife had a major medical problem, or that he fell down the stairs.

"We had a little fire in our house last night." My friend is in his middle 80's and while he is tough and healthy there is no shortage of things that can go wrong.

Later in the day my friend David and I went out to visit to make sure they were OK.

The fire started under the framing next to the all steel fireplace. He liked the wood heat and the warmth it provided in the family room. Probably the unit was faulty from the beginning, and now after 15 or more years, it all came together.

When he first saw the smoke he got out a new garden hose his daughter had given him a few years earlier, but was still in it's original wrappings in the garage. That was a crucial thing. He quickly attached the hose and started watering the smoke.

When he thought he had it under control, he had his wife go ahead and go to bed upstairs. He, however, decided he would sleep in his recliner, so he could be there.

He kept smelling smoke, and when he saw a wisp of smoke come up from the corner of the hearth, he got into action. He got a crowbar and began taking things apart and watering everything at the same time. When he opened up the floorboard a bit, angry flames poured out of the until then oxygen starved fire.

He put the hose into the hole and began spraying everything. In the process he got some nasty 2nd degree burns on his hands. Somewhere in the middle of all of this he got his wife up, and called the fire department. They missed his driveway and were delayed a few minutes.

By the time they arrived he had the flames out.

I am not a firefighter, but it seems that they narrowly avoided a terrible disaster. There are so many "what if's" that the story has no end. The hose; staying up; that first wisp of smoke; the location of the fire; and on and on.

He had planned on painting the inside of the house this year, and now it will be done for sure. There will be remodeling and repair. The fireplace will go away. Wife wants nothing that can start a fire. They will recover and be alright.

But it was so close to being truly awful.