There was a Fire at my place tonight!!
By firecracker
@sacmom (14192)
United States
July 5, 2007 3:16am CST
Okay so it wasn't at my house, but it was in the field that I live on which belongs to my landlord. I had been inside the house with my kids and husband when I heard the first couple of emergency vehicles. Since we live next to the main road I thought nothing of it as there is almost always an emergency vehicle passing through with their sirens on...until my husband said that these vehicles were for us do to the fact that there was a pretty good fire going in the middle of our field. OMG, I just had to take a look for myself. Sure enough there was smoke high in the air and flames leaping from below. It was a few hundred feet away and the wind was blowing it away from both houses that sit on the land. It started in the middle-end of 70 acres and made a strip from one end to the other before several fire trucks and helicopter were able to put it out.
I'm not sure how the fire started, but my landlord said there was a person with some flashing lights (possibly fireworks) walking on the cross street that runs along the field. Maybe this person threw one (or more) in the tall dried out weeds igniting the fire. But who knows. All I know is that it was a scary situation that could have gotten way more out of hand than it did.
Ironically enough, just a few days before, my landlord and I had a discussion about the field as it is in desperate need of being cut down. Every year before this one she had the nursery down the road cut it. It was an exchange type of deal. They cut the hay for her with their tractor and get to keep the hay for themselves as payment. But apparently they are closing and she (my landlord) doesn't know of anyone that is willing to do this type of job for this kind of pay (the hay). Not to mention the last time the ground was cut it wasn't leveled out like it had been all the other times and there is no real hay to get. Just tall weeds. :( I don't know what is going to happen when it comes to cutting down the weeds. I tried to talk to my landlord and her son tonight, but it was too noisy with all the commotion going on to hear what they were saying. But we do know it needs to have a firebreak of some kind to say the least.
Have you ever had a fire so close to your home before?
6 people like this
19 responses
@pramodthakur (2365)
• India
5 Jul 07
I have not yet faced such situation as my house's surrounding is free from hays. As 70 acres is too large field, better you get cut the hay before it is dried out. Fire on such a vast area may cause damage to your house also. Though God has saved you and your family and no harm is there. But for future be cautious. God bless you & your family happy life for ever !!
@sacmom (14192)
• United States
6 Jul 07
Sad thing is, it is already dried out. We've had some hot weather and today was a scorcher. We are very lucky that the wind was blowing away from both houses and that the fire fighters were able to put it out so quickly. I didn't get a chance to talk to my landlord today about the weeds being cut down. Hopefully something will be done about it, and soon!
@Willowlady (10658)
• United States
5 Jul 07
We just lost everything that we owned in April to a a fire. Field to carport to trailer and then took out the trailer that 4 of us was living in. Now we are scrambling to rent a house and work and regain documents and records which is not easy. I hope you have insurance since that would lighten the load for sure. Also keep as many pictures online that you can since that will save you from my heartache of losing pictures as old as I am from when I was born and from them to now. So you can imagine
People have been good but someone we are struggling and wondering what we have done to deserve all this.
Good luck to you and hopefully you will never encounter fire as I did.
2 people like this
@sacmom (14192)
• United States
6 Jul 07
Oh my gosh, I am so sorry Willowlady. :(
I do have some of my photos stored in an online album (I actually use Shutterfly and Snapfish), though I haven't uploaded any since the new year. I really need to do this as I would hate to lose photos, especially due to a disaster like a fire. Thank you for the reminder and again I am sorry.
@GardenGerty (160935)
• United States
5 Jul 07
July third we had gone to bed early, and our neighbor knocked on our door and woke us up. Evidently some fireworks had landed in one of our trees and he extinguished it. It was not one he shot, he is very careful.
One night some years ago, I was going to bed late. I happened to look out my back window and saw a huge flame flare up by the alley. By the time the fire company arrived it had gone out, I thought maybe I had dreamed it, but they said I was not the only one to call it in. It had been a prank, a metal trash can lid had evidently had an accelerant poured in it and was set on fire. It was very close to a gas meter, and that was scary.
I am glad the fire was blowing away from you and was put out before it became worse.
@sacmom (14192)
• United States
7 Jul 07
My husband and I did fireworks, though it is in our fenced in yard. And always afterwards my oldest son and I water down the area so that there is no chance of fire.
That is very scary about both of your fires.
@sacmom (14192)
• United States
6 Jul 07
Hopefully you'll continue to be lucky and not have a fire like I did. It is a scary thing to have a fire so close to home. I hope my landlord will get someone to cut all this field down, and soon...
@mummymo (23706)
•
5 Jul 07
That sounds as though it was a really scary situation for you all honey - and could have been a lot worse if the wind was blowing in a different direction! I am glad you are ok but I agree with you the landlord has a responsibility to keep you and your home as safe as possible and really should deal with the field!
I have never dealt with a fire in my home but a few years back my friends house , just around the corner was on fire and it was so scary - I knew her daughter had been off school ill the day before but wasn't sure if she had gone back to school or whether anyone was in the house - it was awful! Luckily no one had been in the house and everything got restored in a couple of months but it was a very unpleasant experience! xxx
2 people like this
@sacmom (14192)
• United States
6 Jul 07
Your right, it could have been a lot worse had the wind been blowing in a different direction. We are lucky that it was going in the direction it was and that the fire fighters were able to put it out rather quickly. I still need to talk to my landlord about the field getting cut as it is very dangerous to have all this tall dried weeds around us.
@bballpro (79)
• United States
5 Jul 07
I've been into a fire close to my house. My neighbors had a small fire in their house and the firefighters came in no time (our neighberhood is really close to a police station). The firefighters were here in a minute so they put the fire out quickly. None of us got injured neither did anyone in our neighbor's family.
@sacmom (14192)
• United States
7 Jul 07
It's always a good thing when the firefighters are able to put out a fire so quickly. And it's always great news that there were no injures.
@Thoroughrob (11742)
• United States
10 Jul 07
I know that had to be scary. At least it was caught before it damaged someones house. I had an old exhaust fan short out once and it sent sparks into the insulation above my kitchen. It was just smoldering, but they said it had probably been doing that for up to two weeks. Scared me. What if we had not caught it!! It could have burnt our whole house down.
1 person likes this
@sacmom (14192)
• United States
11 Jul 07
That is scary! Just be grateful that it was caught and that your house didn't burn down.
The houses around here are spread far apart. I don't think they would have been in any danger unless the wind shifted or the firefighters wouldn't have been able to put it out as fast as they did.
@ctv101103 (859)
• Philippines
6 Jul 07
i remember when i was still in elementary school, the house across ours got burned down.
it was a weekend and a little after lunch then. not too many people were outside. we just heard someone shouting "fire! fire!". my dad immediately went outside, closely followed by the rest of us. that's when we saw the fire across the street. what's worse is that only the children of our neighbor were left at home with a nanny. everyone on our street helped the children get out, as well as some of their belongings. since our house was just across, everyone placed the "saved" items in front of our house. the children also stayed with us until their parents got home. it was really frightening. it thought the fire would burn down every house on the street. fortunately, it was contained to that one house.
i will never forget that experience.
1 person likes this
@byfaithonly (10698)
• United States
6 Jul 07
Years back we were living in Houston, Texas and the house just behind us caught on fire. No one was home at the time thankfully but the house was distroyed.
It was so hot that our back door which faced that house was hot to touch from the inside.
@sacmom (14192)
• United States
7 Jul 07
Wow, now THAT is close! Good thing no one was home then. It's sad that they lost their home though.
@twils2 (1812)
• United States
5 Jul 07
Hi Sacmom, Well its good that someone noticed the fire before it got to your house. When I was a kid I noticed the garage to the house across the street from us burning and called the fire department and then let them know about it. I'm just glad everyone is okay! Take care, Terry
2 people like this
@sacmom (14192)
• United States
6 Jul 07
There was no danger of the fire coming to my house...unless the wind shifted of course. Luckily there are no other houses close by, though there is a small business that the flames were leaping towards. Fortunately the fire fighters were able to put it out before it could reach it (the building is about 300 feet away or so).
@retardedrugrat (4791)
• Canada
5 Jul 07
Yes I have had a fire even closer that yours before. The day after Boxing day last year, the apartment building directly across from our building caught on fire. There is no more than 100 metres between the two buildings.
The fire started on the third floor, and by the time it was eventually put out 15 hours later, the entire top floor and the middle floor were burned to nothing. Over 100 people lost their homes, and everything they owned. Many of them also lost their beloved pets. It made the local and national news too, and photographers and reporters were swarming around all afternoon.
As things stand now, the building has finally been demolished. There are plans to rebuild so that some of the old residents may move back if they so desire. I don't think they'll have any problems filling the new building though regardless.
Having a fire so close is a very scary thing .... it upset me badly to see some people in tears, overwhelmed by the knowledge that they'd lost everything, and right after Christmas too. The timing couldn't have been worse.
We hadn't even been living in the complex a month when the fire broke out, and all I could think was "Thank god it wasn't us." We didn't have renters insurance at the time. 75% of people who lived in the burning building also didn't have insurance.
@sacmom (14192)
• United States
7 Jul 07
Oh that is terribly sad. :*( I don't remember seeing it on the news, but then again I usually avoid watching the news due to the fact that most of the news is just so darn sad and depressing.
@wendy82 (437)
• United States
5 Jul 07
No I have never had a fire close to my house. I am sorry to hear about it. Hope everything is going okay. That is sad that the landlord is not knowing what to do. Maybe they should cut it themselves or have a tenant do it for them and they take money off the rent.
@sacmom (14192)
• United States
7 Jul 07
My landlord is an older woman that does not know how to work a tractor. Plus she doesn't own one. The one in the past belonged to the guy that cut the hay down for her. And the only tenants she has are my husband, myself, and my boys. My kids are too young to operate such machinery and my husband and I don't know how to. Plus my husband has been swamped with work which doesn't leave him much time for anything else. So even if my landlord had the tractor, there is no one here that can do it.
@misheleen73 (6037)
• United States
5 Jul 07
No, I have never had a fire so close to my house. I would never want it to either. Thank God you are all okay and the wind was carrying it away from your home. Your landlord really needs to do something, especially with it being such a fire hazard with the dryness. Again, I am happy to hear you and your family are okay.
2 people like this
@sacmom (14192)
• United States
6 Jul 07
Yes I know. I was meaning to talk to her tonight about it, but I didn't get a chance to. Hopefully tomorrow.
@mrrtomatoe (800)
• Canada
5 Jul 07
No I have to say my house never caught on fire but there was a church down my street that did. I think a candle had fallen and was left unattended. I was coming home when I saw a large cloud of smoke rising in the sky and all the fire trucks around the building. I also remember a factory burnt down but by the time I was there the fire was already put out.
2 people like this
@warriorsdaughter (791)
• United States
5 Jul 07
I have dealt with 2 fires. One was our 2 car garage and it burnt to the ground along with all contents inside. The other was our house and the electrical wiring to our dryer shorted out and went up into flames.
My 2 older boys and me are lucky to be alive today. We were sleeping and my hubby had left for work about 6am. He happen to have left his wallet at home and came back to the house up in flames. He screamed for me to get out while he went to the back of the house where the fire was at and got the boys out. Luckily none of us were hurt, just a little smoke inhalation from being asleep and not knowing what was going on. Our smoke detector didn't go off and we weren't sure why it malfunctioned. It was pretty scary! The fire department did save our pet bird, which he was one room away from the fire.
It is very scary going through something like that. We ended up losing most of our belongings due to the black soot and smell.
@sacmom (14192)
• United States
7 Jul 07
OMG, you are extremely lucky to be alive today! I bet you (and everyone else in your family) are glad that your husband forgot his wallet that day.
@morgandrake (2136)
• United States
5 Jul 07
I have never been present for a fire that close. But the garage of the house that we brought four years ago, caught fire a couple of owners ago. And last night, I watered down the edge of the yard, so my neighbors' fireworks won't burn it.
1 person likes this
@sacmom (14192)
• United States
7 Jul 07
I always water down part of my yard really well after fireworks. My oldest son and I douse the area so that there is no possibility of a fire from the fireworks. My husband thinks I'm nutty for going overboard with the water, but IMO it's better to be safe than sorry.
@carmelanirel (20942)
• United States
9 Sep 07
Wow, that must have been scary, sacmom. Glad to hear that you and your family are ok
