I'm sitting in my family room when my phone rings and it's my next door neighbor asking if his house is on fire? (They are snowbirds and have not come back from Florida yet). I answer want me to check thinking he's pulling my leg of some reason (April Fools is tomorrow). He replies that his security company is reporting the smoke detector in their upstairs bedroom is going off. I grab their key and I'm met as I open the door by my other next door neighbor who was walking her dog asking if I have a key because the fire truck has just arrived. Nothing seems amiss looking at their house. I walk over and hand the key to one of the 3 fireman that have just gotten off the truck. Minutes after they go in they come running out and grab tanks and masks off the truck, suit up and back in they go. Other firemen are hooking up the fire hose to the hydrant and running it into the house. In the meantime two of my neighbors cousins that live in the area have arrived so I let them take over with the phone call updates to Florida and talking with the firemen. Took them what seemed like 30 minutes to finally locate that the smoke was coming from the furnace located in the basement. One of the circuit boards was on fire. They came out and got the right extinguisher and put the fire out. To make this long thankfully happy story short, if it wasn't for the smoke detector being tied into the alarm system the Fire Chief said that by 2am (this happened about 5pm) the fire would have engulfed the house. It's hard to think about how bad it could have been. I went in and grabbed my camera at the very end and took this picture as they were just finishing up putting the fire hose away.
Wow! Having lived through the less happy outcome, I'm so glad that their house was saved! And that the fire department knew exactly how to get the fire out. They are very lucky folks in the end.
What a scary situation. That is a good reason to have smoke alarms connected to their security system, for sure. Hummmm! Wonder if ours is? I finish this, and 'm going to quiz my husband!! Glad for the happy ending!! Nice that you got a photo to show your neighbors as well as 365.
