Does anyone smell smoke....I think there is a FIRE!!

Mike was sitting at the front table and noticed fire outside in our backyard. He ran out back but couldn't identify the source. The smell confirmed that this was not just the neighbors BBQ. By this time I am rounding up our kids, and getting dressed (we are never fully dressed, being dressed is so uncomfortable. Just expect a few min delay when we come to the door for an unexpected visitor). Anyway, Mike runs to the front door to see smoke coming from the house DIRECTLY across the street from ours. Oh my goodness!!! This first picture is taken from our front porch.

Mike and I go to the next yard to get a better look. The pic below is from the neighbors yard to the West of ours. Keep in mind that this was the first 5 min of the fire...no police or fire trucks yet. uh....scary. I run back in the house to find the boys staring out the front windows...tears just streaming down their little cheeks.

This is the picture from our front window a few min later. Still no fire truck...uh...when are they COMING!! 7 fire trucks and 5 hours later the fire was out and the trucks turned off their lights and left.

Once we saw the fire was under control, some of our friends came by to get the best view of the action. Funny how a fire brings people out that you wouldn't have otherwise seen that day.

This was a picture once they got the fire out. It is hard to tell, but if you look from the front of the house you can see all the way through the house. The entire house was destroyed. About a week ago they came and tore the entire house down in just one day. Sad.

We thanked the firemen. They had a long night. The guy in the back, next to the truck, had the job of refilling the oxygen tanks. As the firemen would use them up they would bring back empty tanks
and lay them on the designated spot on our lawn. The spot marked "EMPTY". The guy would take them to the truck, fill them up, and place them on our lawn next to the "FULL" sign. The whole production was quite overwhelming and scary, a little too close to home, literally. thank goodness for people who choose to risk their lives by fighting fires.