16 years ago, part 2

The Fire in our Home that Night

The firefighters waited. The house was closed up. Not a window was open and there were at least 2 other propane tank heaters in the house. They were waiting for the oxygen to run out and the fire to mostly put itself out. Going into the house meant possibly more fire and bringing in the hoses.

My mom went over to the house when the firetrucks arrived; my siblings and I stayed at our neighbors.

At some point, the firefighters went into the house, putting the rest of the flames out. They never brought in hoses. They threw my brother's burning toys out his window upstairs. Only the kitchen, stairs, upstairs bathroom, and brother's room burned. Everything else was black with smoke. The other heaters never caught fire.

The firefighters brought out our cats and two finches who didn't make it. The cats were on the other side of the house from the fire, laying next to each other with their noses by the front door. Our black lab, Dakota, was outside in the kennel and just fine.

The fire had stayed in the kitchen and shot up the stairs. My shoes were melted near the kitchen door, but not burned. At the top of the stairs was the bathroom to the left, my brother's room straight ahead, and the door to the right leading to a large closet and all the girls' bedrooms. The door on the right was closed. We didn't have hallways in this house. You had to walk through rooms to get to my parents room and the other set of stairs. Both my room and my brother's room had two sets of doors. I think my parent's bedroom door had also shut as my brother's room's 2nd door led to the other set of stairs and then to their room. And I remember that when the home was being restored, they couldn't re-stain my parents' door and had to paint it instead.

My dad got a message at work about his home being on fire, and showed up during this time. He had driven 30+ miles crying, believing that his family was gone. I'm sure he was relieved to find we were all okay.

My parents came back to our neighbors and filled us in and told us about the cats and birds. I'm sure I cried. We began making phone calls to find people to stay with. My sisters and I each went to different friend's homes so that we could go to school with them the next day and wear their clothes and shoes. This would leave my parents undistracted in figuring out where to go from there.

I stayed at my friend Jessie's house. Her family took care of me for a few days. I don't remember how long. And I went to school with her the next day, sharing the story with my friends. It was all so grievous and shocking that I didn't know how to respond, but we were all okay and besides our cats & birds, I didn't yet know what we had and hadn't lost.

More to come.