More excitement than we wanted

[mdlbear]

As I was driving to work this morning Colleen called to say that the top floor of our neighbors' house was on fire. She'd spotted it just as she was leaving to go shopping, and called 911. Not exactly what one wants to hear while stuck in a traffic jam half an hour from home.

Since there didn't seem to be much I could do at home, I decided to stay at work; I am now home because there were some errands that Colleen wasn't going to be able to get to. The Starport is untouched, fortunately, and it looks like the damage next door is largely confined to the attic and top floor.

Nobody was home at the time, and we have no contact info; fortunately Belen (I think that's the correct spelling) turned up about an hour ago, having come back to fetch something she had forgotten. So things are being taken care of. Their pets, sadly, did not survive.

Colleen was told by the firefighters to stay outside on the porch, so she had a ringside seat.

Still more excitement than we needed for the day. Or the year.

We'll be swapping emergency contact information with our neighbors.

Comments

[snobahr.livejournal.com]

In August 2004, the house next door caught fire (with some (unconfirmed) suspicions of insurance-related arson). BoyZilla was less than a year old, and I was a wreck, because we were at the south end of the house on the computers, with BoyZilla napping beside me, and the house-on-fire was to our north. Wide lot, too... so it took the banging on the front door for us to be informed that there was a Situation™ that necessitated our immediate evacuation.

Our house, thankfully, was untouched, like yours.

But it was damned scary.

[mdlbear]

The firefighters on this one said it looked like an electrical fire. But, yeah.

Relieved that you guys are ok

[carmiel.livejournal.com]

I'm relieved to hear all of you are ok. Bet it was kinda cool for Colleen being instructed to sit there and gawk, instead of being told to back off/go away.

Re: Relieved that you guys are ok

[mdlbear]

She might well have wanted to do that anyway, but apparently they wanted to make sure they knew where she was in case they needed to evacuate/extinguish our house in a hurry.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

I'm real glad you're all OK.

Belén is a common Spanish name, lit. 'Bethlehem'. Coincidentally, last week I pointed this out to the keeper of a site of weird Utahn names.

[jilara.livejournal.com]

Waaay too much excitement... I guess there was a reason why I needed to check LJ before I went to your house, tonight.

At least it wasn't a place that blew up, with a double homicide inside, like the house behind me, a few years back.

[chaoswolf]

I'm seeing a small connection to yesterday with me telling you about the fire up here...Sheesh. Not fun.