Thursday, April 24, 2008

Fire just a little too close

I took this picture at 4:30 A.M. I got a call at 4 from a neighbor down the road telling me that the apartments across the street from me were on fire. I opened the front door and took one look and started to get Kyle up. Marc was still home, which I did not realize. You can see the height of the building on the right (which is the one still standing in the picture below.) There were 3 buildings that tall in the now open space. The second stories were still on the buildings that have been flattened and the flames were shooting really high into the air. It was really scary that in half an hour those buildings were just gone.
The two remaining buildings are too close for comfort, if you ask me.
The above apartment building was one of the already inhabited ones from 4 years ago. One whole end of it is burnt out. It looks like the fires started in the new construction and spread to the old building. I personally think the buildings are much too close together and too high. I did not realize how much of the view they had taken up.
The smell of smoke is everywhere, so I have the air conditioner on high to suck it out. I found large ashes in the animal area. Sure am glad the wind was not blowing. It would have hit us easily. Marc needs to check the roof tonight - just in case! It will make me feel better.

The animals were fine and none panicked. I figured that the llamas would scream, if they felt threatened.

The TUSD school group came out to drop spindle today. Of the eight, 4 were fairly good. I can always pick out the ones who are scientific/more precise! They will be back next week to wet felt. All of them will like that!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

OMG! I didn't realize those apartment fires were in THOSE apartments! I am so glad you guys are all safe and sound.

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

How scary! Glad you guy made it unscathed, and hope noone was in the apt buildings.

I'm glad that your animals are ok, too.

Years ago back in SC, we were awakened at 3 am (on my hubby's birthday) by and explosion and then saw that our walls were bathed in red. We peeked out our windows and saw that the house directly across the street from us had caught on fire. It spread really fast and we called and called the fire sept, but it took almost 11 minutes for them to get there. By then, the fireplae had fallen in and the garage was gone, and the cars in the driveway weer burning.
We watched in horror as our neighbor, who's hubby was out of town, ran out of the building with her 2 children....just in time...before their entire house was engulfed in flames.

The fire even scorched the neighbor's house on the other side and melted all of their vinyl siding...thankfully that was it....oh and melting the glue from the wallpaper off their kitchen nook wall.

Thankfully, our house was set back into the woods, unlike our neighbor's house which was on the road, or else we might have gotten some of that heat and sparks from the fire.

But afterwards was the worst for us because of the ashes, burnt papers and trash, the rotting food, and the empty burnt out spooky house sitting like that for several months, even through Christmas....and while we were in the process of trying to sell our house.

Not many people want to buy a house with a fire destroyed house directly across the street, wich can be seen from every window of the house.

I was depressed for several months and even felt angry at the people who'd house had burned down.

They never came back to clean up any debris or the rotting food or trash.

They were given a rent-free townhouse to live in, while the insurance company was preparing to cover the rebuilding of the burnt house, but also remodeling it and adding on an additional floor.

I was grateful that they survived the fire, though, but it was such a tramautic time of my life. It took me more than a year to not wake up in fear if I heard anything that sounded like an explosion or possible fire, or if I smelled any kind of smoke.