My Monday Night

Arkanjel

Arkanjel

New Member
My Monday night started like any other.

I was sitting at the computer waiting for 24 to come on. While I was sitting there I smelled what I thought was someone burning a campfire. I decided to get up and check it out since its not something you smell very often. I followed my nose to the garage and didn't see anything. I decided to open the garage just to see what I could see.....

The house across the street from me, and I mean directly across the street from me, was engulfed in thick black smoke that was blowing right at my house. I yelled for my wife and she grabbed her phone and started to call 911. It has been pretty dry here recently and I knew that I had to be ready for anything now. I got my hose hooked up in the front of the house as fast as I could and waited.

It didn't take long for the hot embers to start coming my way. The wind that had been howling all day was still in full effect and blowing right at my house. The fire seemed to start on the opposite end of the house in the garage, but it quickly made its way toward us.

The fire trucks showed up and got set-up. Thankfully one truck laid hoses out in my yard and his only job was to hose down mine and my neighbors houses. I was most relieved when he started to do that.

At one point when I was watching this all unfold I remember looking at the roof of the house that was burning and seeing huge jets of flame shoot out where vents used to be. That was a sight to behold.

From the talk amongst the neighbors we pieced together the following. The lady(who wasn't home when it happened) used to own a pet store and had a lot of animals there. She bred shar-peis (SP?), had pot-bellied pigs, lizards, snakes(venomous), rats, and monkeys. I know that the dogs, except for one who was hit on the main road made it out, I think all the pigs made it, monkeys survived, and at least one iguana. Needless to say I had NO idea all that stuff was in the house.

I have never experienced anything like this before. Looking at the sky and seeing it covered with red embers floating by was quite surreal. No person was hurt, but I'm not sure about the animals. I'm just thankful that my house was spared through the ordeal.


Here is my wifes version from her MySpace Blog.

Well, last night was pretty much nuts. It was a pretty normal evening up until about 8:45 when Gabe asked me if I smelled smoke. I did, so I looked around our house trying to figure if it was coming from inside and Gabe went outside to see if our neighbors were burning something. He was outside about 5 sec and came in to grab his jeans telling me the neighbors house was on fire. I called 911, but they already knew about it. Gabe got our house all hooked up because it was super windy yesterday and the house was across the street with the wind blowing right at us. It seemed like forever before the fire dept got here. In the meantime, all the neighbors had come out to see what was going on. People were running everywhere. The lady whose house was on fire wasn't home, and people were trying to get her many dogs out.

Once the FD showed up, they obviously tried to fight that blaze and they also hosed down our house and our neighbors on both sides. Both my kids slept thru the whole thing, somehow. It was pretty scarey watching large pieces of firey ash land on your house and yard! I felt tons better once the FD sprayed our house.

I really felt bad for the lady whose house it was, because they had rescently lost their buisness, and now this. They ran, or used to, an exotic pet store, so they had crazy things in their house the FD was trying to get out. There were pigs, iguanas, snakes (like crazy poisonous ones!), dogs, puppies, and some kind of little monkeys. Three pigs made it, as did the iguana, I think all the dogs, but they were all lose and one got hit just outside our neighborhood. People were all looking with flashlights and leashes trying to round up the dogs. I don't know how many were found.

So the house is pretty much gone. And the thoery last night was that one of the heating lamps in the garage (for the snakes) started it. We do know that that's where it started.

What a crazy night!!!
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holy crap...... iguanas. how could the lady leave all that stuff at home when she wasnt there?
 
We went for a walk last night and scoped out the damage. The end of the house with the garage is mostly gutted, and the roof is gone from the rest of the house. Seems like once the fire got in the attic it just burned the roof and left the lower part of the house alone. There were all kinds of metal shelving melted and twisted over in the garage from I guess were she had all the snakes and stuff.
 
Got an update today on what the firemen said caused the fire. Apparently it was the hot water heater that started the fire. Also the update on lost animals is not what we thought. No snakes or lizards were lost, but a mother dog and her puppies were killed along with a cat.

One cool thing was the ladies closet full of clothes was spared.
 
Sorry about the bump but that sounds intense, glad nobody was injured or killed, too bad about the dog and puppies and the cat though.
 
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