Just another day... Not


Almost lost the house. I get home right at 5:30 pm; and as per normal, went into the bedroom and opened the window. Was browsing AR15.com in GD when I smelled what I thought was the neighbor firing up the bbq next door. I was mistaken as about a minute later (about 5:50 or so) a wall of smoke rolls in through my open window. I opened the curtain real quick... And ran through the house grabbing the fire extinguisher and the phone. Room mate was "Huh?"...on the way out the door I yelled to him "Fire, backyard"

He comes running out behind me and I yell at him to get the f'ing hose out of the basement. Extinguisher one fails....Extinguisher two fires up...I dial 9-1-1 and it puts me on hold (found out later that just about every neighbor that wasn't coming to help directly was calling 9-1-1 at the same time and the system was over capacity; neighbor shows up with his extinguisher...and between the two of us we knocked down most of it; just as both our extinguishers peter out...a gust of wind comes through and WOOSH!! More neighbors show up with buckets; I run inside grabbing towels to beat the fire with; room mate is hooking up the hose... Hose is going; fire reaches the main house...I toss the towels to neighbors that are handy and start hitting the fire that reached the house with the hose. More neighbors show up with buckets, and more hoses. House caught fire in three spots...got that knocked down...another gust of wind hits and WOOSH again. Fire rolls right past me. I yell at my roommate to get the dog out of there. Smoke was heavy enough he couldn't find him. I cut the fires direction of travel soaking everything I could hit....Sirens are approaching. The Cavalry hath arrived! I hand roomie the hose and go into the other section of the fire (mostly just smoke) grab the dog when I spotted him in the corner and put him into the house (house was safe at that point).

Fire out...Firefighters soaking everything....adren dump backs off and I start hacking pretty good (normal). I can now say I've been on 4 fires. The other three were brushfires down in E. WA. We thanked the neighbors that helped. I'll be picking up some new fire extinguishers; for myself...and if I can, a couple of the neighbors. Roomie just told me that "If you wouldn't have come home when you did, I'd still be sleeping." He's an alright guy, he's staying in my extra bedroom while he gets back on his feet, was off from work today so being a lazy bum LOL

I also have a thank you; letter to the editor to type up and send to the paper.