Amazing

EPILOGUE (FIRE!)

    The devastation in the wake of a house fire is unbelievable. An "adjuster" had shown up during the fire, and explained the procedures to follow and offered his services.  We hired him on the spot.  A fire adjuster does the paper work for you and acts as your representative with your insurance company.  Oh, by the way, they take a percentage of what you collect from the insurance.
    The first time I went back into the house it didn't look that bad.  I didn't realize it at the time, but I must have been in denial.  Each time I went back into the house it looked worse than the previous time.  I figured that we could salvage a lot of things.  Finally I saw the shattered glass from framed pictures, broken windows and glass door. The verticals in the family room had melted from the heat and were hanging like icicles.  The linoleum was melted beyond recognition and the carpeting was crackling under foot.  I finally realized that it was much worse than I thought.
    Some people seem to think "oh you have fire insurance" is a relief.  It is to a certain extent, but can not possibly begin to replace the memories, the treasured  souvenirs from the past - basically your history.  While I thanked God for our safety, I didn't expect what was to come next.
    All padded furniture had to be tossed, mattresses, the melted floor, the fried wiring, crispy carpeting.  There was a hole in the roof, the chared remains of the now non-existent deck, and all the work done by my father-in-law.  Hoping to save something from the basement, I couldn't get to it because the stairs were burned away.  As it turned out, there was four feet of water in the basement from the firemen putting out the fire.  Any hopes of salvaging anything was pretty much out of the question.
    Our daughter-in-law had cleaned the entire house and shampooed the carpeting just finishing the day before.  Now her job was to deal with the adjuster, the builder and the clean up crew to make sure that all salvageable items were safe.  Those items were put in storage, and remain there.  The entire house had to be tossed!  The house was stripped down to the framing, and all cabinets and appliances were tossed.
    Our younger son, the EMT, wound up leaving the first aid squad and helped me to plan out the "new" house.  By the time my son and I were done, the price of the house more than doubled the original cost, and we had an addition planned.  We were under the mistaken impression that the fire insurance would cover all of this.  Wrong!  Everyone makes a buck from your misfortune and it's sickening.  The new mortgage is double and so are the payments.
    We moved from our daughter's to a motel that ousted my poor puppy, and then to a rental.  My pup went to live with my older son temporarily and he came home to the rental.  We moved back in late January, eight  months after the fire.
    During the rebuilding of the house, my father-in-law died and just before we moved back in, our daughter died.  There was so much to deal with, my husband and I became zombies.  Thank God our amazing children were there to take care of us!

FIRE! (Part 2)

    While waiting for the firefighters to get to our house, we both stood there in utter dismay. We had  stood in the same spot watching it being built.  We were so excited then, anticipating  raising the children in a house, having a house, our house.  Twenty-one years ago we moved in.  All of our belongings and accumulated "toys," furniture, photos, personal treasures and our Kittie were gone.
    Upon hearing the siren of the ambulance I looked over as it parked.  My son and daughter-in- law (other son's wife) came flying out!  Later we found out that a "structure fire" was really serious and usually included burn victims and/or death.  They had heard the fire report over the scanner and dashed to get to us arriving even before the fire department.  We were put in the ambulance, I sat up while the husband layed down.  He suffered some smoke inhalation along with the embarrassment of being in his undies.  They gave me a bottle of water,and some oxygen and although my throat was sore, I was ok.  They took Don to the hospital emergency room where he was treated and released.  Angel went to the vet, and poor Kittie went to heaven. 
    I was dazed, but I remembered that our medication was in the house.  One of the firemen went in to get it while another went in to get Kittie.  Mercifully Kittie had died in her sleep.  Two of our daughters dropped everything and ran to us, and our son-in-law came, too.  We were not allowed back into the house until after the house was inspected because of safety issues.
    I felt so helpless, and light-headed.  My usual routine for leaving the house was to gather keys, pocketbook, credit cards, coffee and then go to the car.   I took none of the above, just me and Angel.  It felt so strange leaving the door unlocked for the fire inspector.  Someone took care of locking up - but I don't know who.  I was so overwhelmed - where would we go?  Where can you go without money and clothes?
    Our daughter, Lisa and her husband Paul offered for us to stay at their house until things got straightened out.  They went out and bought us a bed, and set up a room for us in their dining room. Meanwhile, our other daughter went shopping, purchased the essentials and brought them to us, and took care of our son's dog.  My daughter's former mother-in-law gave us a card with cash in it.  All the kids were so caring and helpful.  What a blessing!
    The possibility of a fire had haunted me all those years when the children were young.  We had a plan, and a place to meet, and even ran through the procedure several times.  My biggest fear was always that it would start upstairs and God forbid if someone didn't get out.
    The fire was started in the basement by a faulty water heater.  I found out later that my husband woke up and heard something in the basement.  He opened the door and saw the fire.  He quickly closed the door and then the alarms went off, and he came upstairs to tell me.  It's amazing to me that the fire happened the way it did, and that we got out of the house before we could get trapped.  My son was on duty, my father-in-law, who lived with us was in the hospital, my son's dog was tied up outside.  Some people, such as I, would call it "amazing grace."

FIRE! (Part 1)

    On the morning of May 5, 2000 the weather was already getting warm and the central air conditioning was on. I was running low on cigarettes so I decided to go downstairs to see if I could grub some from the husband.  I tucked my  Malatese puppy under my arm and started downstairs.  It was strange because as I went downstairs, it got warmer.  I just brushed it off thinking that we were in for a hot day.  Little did I know!I
    I went into the family room where the husband had fallen asleep on the couch watching TV and looked for his cigarettes.  He was low, too, so I only took one and me and the pup went back upstairs.  I had just set the puppy on the floor in the bedroom when all of a sudden all the alarms in the house were going off! The husband rushed upstairs yelling "get out of the house, there's a fire!"  My whole body started to tremble.  He was about to break down the door to our son's room, but I told him he wasn't home, he was on duty (he was an EMT). He ran into our bedroom and I figured he was grabbing some clothes since he was in his undies.  Meanwhile I grabbed the pup and headed downstairs.
    For some reason I just couldn't believe that our house was on fire.  I stopped on the third step from the downstairs and just looked around.  I didn't see any fire, everything looked ok to me.  All those years of "Sparky the Fire Dog" training in school got me really confused.  Weren't you supposed to stay low?  The lower I went, the hotter it got.  Soon I could feel a burning in my throat as I breathed.  "This can't be right" I said to myself.  I looked at the pup and he looked back at me as if to tell me to do something quick!  Then the husband came from behind me and gave me a nudge.  One of my slippers had melted on the stairs so I was going outside with one slipper and the husband didn't grab clothes, he grabbed his cell phone.  Just as we got outside I remembered that our 18 year old cat, Kittie, was sleeping in her usual spot on the couch in the living room.  I told the husband we forgot to get Kittie.  With that, he ran back into the house and tried to get to the cat dispite my pleas for him not to go back in.
    A few minutes later he came out and told me he couldn't see anything it was too smoky in the house.  We were standing in the street, me and the pup, and the husband in his undies.  We were looking at the house in sheer disbelief.  How in the world could this happen??  Don dialed 911 and reported the fire and we just stood there waiting for the fire department.  As we watched, we could see black smoke pouring out of our bedroom window, and from the back of the house where the deck was.
    Soon neighbors were coming to see if they could help, and two of my closest friends came to comfort me.  Finally we heard sirens, and it was the first aid squad.  Aparently they had heard the dispatch for the fire department on their radio and raced to get to us.