Fire

It was an ordinary late afternoon in August at the house.  The kids avoiding the 100+ degree weather & were in the midst of our end of summer Harry Potter Movie Marathon.  I had just turned on the oven, preparing for our dinner guests to arrive in about an hour.  Then the ordinary turned a little strange.  The power started flickering and then went out on one side of the  house.  I went out to check the fuse box and was about 6 inches away when I stopped, smelling smoke.  As I looked around, I didn't see anything but as I started to reach for the fuse box again, I stopped and looked up and saw the power line was on fire.  Yikes.  I ran into the house and grabbed the phone to call 911, while yelling at the kids to get out of the house.  We happened to be dog sitting & watching our neighbor's house so I sent Michael & the kids over there while I waited for the fire department. 

I had been on the phone with the dispatcher, watching the fire on the power line inching towards our house, when all of the sudden the power line flared up, sparking flames everywhere, into the large oak tree and onto the dry grass. Luckily nothing else caught on fire & within 10 seconds there was a small bang and the power line snapped, flew into the air & wrapped around the other line running to the house. It was still on fire, but just a slow burn at this point. The snapping of the power line ended all power to the house & the phone went dead. After waiting for what seemed to be forever but was really just like 10 minutes, we heard the sirens and the fire department pulled up along side our house.

 

The firemen were great and took care of business pretty quickly, although they were not real excited about the power lines being on fire...I totally understood :)

 

I had called Don at work on my dying cell (of course it wasn't charged!) and he had called the power company. Just a little tip, if the fire department comes, they also call the power company and with their call you get bumped to the top of the list. So I guess there are perks to having the house catch on fire!

Once the fire department had put out the fire and put up the caution tape, I remembered that the missionaries were on the way to our house for dinner.  After a quick series of texts, they just came by and picked up the uncooked dinner to cook at their place.  I promise I don't normally burn down the house when I make dinner! 

Then the power company came out pretty quickly to assess the situation & restore power.  After about an hour and half, we got power back.  We also found out the cause of the fire. 

Turns out occasionally squirrels will chew on the power lines.  Not quite the harmless cute little creatures we thought they were!  After that adventure, we finally had power but a hot house & no dinner.  It definitely was time for a little Chick-fil-a splurge!

Fast forward 2 months.  We were dog sitting again (different dog!) and this time the dog was in the backyard with the kids.  All of the sudden I hear Hayley calling me.  The dog had been back in the bushes near the fence & and had emerged with the bones of the fried squirrel.  Eeeww!!