The Second Worst Phone Call

I think the worst phone call you could get would be one that comes in the middle of the night saying someone died. The second would have to be, "The house is on fire!"

Last night about 8:30 p.m. our renter called in a panic saying, "The house is on fire, the fire department is on the way." She smelled smoke and her husband told her she was just being paranoid. But she kept smelling it. Finally they pulled up the hatch to the crawl space and the smoke came billowing out. Her fiver year old daughter was in the tub. She pulled her out, threw a towel around her and ran her over to the neighbors, while calling 911, then us. Layne and I and all three kids flew out of the house and ran next door. When we got there we could see smoke coming out, but no flames. Luckily our renter had put out a water hose last week and we grabbed that and strung it through the house to the enclosed front porch where the fire seemed to be. Tanner and I ran to the shop to get more lengths of hose. Tanner flew up the ladder to the loft and threw them down to me. He later said he had never run so fast before. And now he has decided that he wants to be a fireman when he grows up.

Layne and our renter ended up getting a crow bar to pull up the floor boards to get to the fire. Everyone was wondering what started it. Layne knew there was no electrical wiring in that part of the house. Once the floorboards came up he found a smoldering cigarette butt. The renter said, "Oh." Boy did he have a red face. Evidently when he threw the butt out the front door the wind must have blown it back in and it fell beneath the floor boards.

Luckily they had it out before the firemen got there and the fire was contained to the crawl space. But the entire house was filled with smoke. They spent the night with relatives and now are going to have to empty the house so the restoration people can come in and clean the walls and carpets. I'm just glad no one was hurt and nothing was lost in the fire. It sure was a good way to get all the neighbors out for a block party. Boy the tongues will be wagging about this one for a while.