Last night was probably the scariest night of my life. We almost burnt down our house!
For dinner we grilled up some deer steaks and had potatoes and veggies. It was a great dinner. While we were eating, Russell left the grill on to burn off and clean off any leftover food pieces stuck on the grill. After we ate, Russell got ready to go to work. Then the kids and I headed to the park to meet the other kids and families of the preschool group we are starting. We had a great time at the park. We played in the Splash pad and met a few new friends.
The kids had so much fun they didn't want to leave. I think this new preschool group I have Colby in will be really good for him and the other ladies seem really great.
Finally we left the park and set off for home. When I got home I faintly smelled propane but I thought nothing of it. I got the kids into the bath and ready for bed. Every night we open the windows in our house to let the night air cool the house during the night. When I was opening the side window, I noticed our backyard was glowing and flickering. I was so confused thinking "Who would have a fire going this time of night and so close to the houses?" So I dashed over to the back door to see what was going on. That is when I saw it. THE FIRE! Our barbecue grill was on fire and blowing flames right toward our house! I ran outside to see if I could put the fire out and told the kids so stay in the house. We were all freaking out. Logan was crying. I rushed to the grill and noticed that it was still turned on so I tried to turn it off. The knob seemed to be stuck but finally I was able to turn it to the off position. The fire was still raging and I noticed that the hose from the propane tank to the grill was melted clean off and just dangling there. The fire was blowing out of the propane tank. It was so scary because the fire was just like a blow torch just blowing out the side of the grill and propane tank.
I tried to call Russell about a million times so he could tell me what to do but he must have been on a call and couldn't answer. I had no idea what to do so turned the grill and "blow torch" away from the house and raced to the front yard to get the hose. I wrestled the hose to the backyard, hooked it up to the spigot, and then wrestled the big knot of the hose over to the fire. I sprayed the flame with a ton of water and it was still blazing. I knew if I could turn off the propane tank I could stop the fire but in order to do that I would have burned my whole arm off in the process. I decided that was not the best idea. That is when I decided I needed more help and for the first time in my life, I called 911. I gave the dispatcher all of the information and she asked if the fire was near the propane tank. That is when it hit me, this propane tank was going to explode and catch everything on fire! I kind of freaked out again. The dispatch lady said to get everyone out of the house and away from the fire and the fire department was on their way.
I ran in the house and got the kids out and we waited in the corner of our backyard. When I came back outside, I noticed a little flame trailing into the propane tank and I just got sick to my stomach. I could hear the sirens coming but it seemed like they were not coming fast enough. Just then, Kevin, the fire chief (and a guy in our ward), came around the side of the house, grabbed the grill, and just pulled it away from the house and into the grass. I had tried to do that but with broken wheels on the grill it was hard and I didn't want to tip the grill over. Then Kevin came and got the hose from me and started spraying the fire too. The fire trucks finally arrived and in one spray of their hose snuffed the fire out and quickly turned the propane tank off. I was so relieved. I cannot even describe what a relief it was to see the fire out and my house still standing. Luckily this was the only damage done:
Our grill was right next to the outside railing so by the time I got outside and moved the grill, the fire had melted and charred our railing. This could have been much worse but I am glad it wasn't. The other picture is of the melted hose to the barbecue grill. After this melted, the fire was just blowing like a blow torch.
The Hyrum Fire guys were really cool about the whole thing. I felt really dumb calling 911 because Russell is a fire fighter and I felt like I should have known what to do. They all joked about how much better Hyrum Fire Department was than Logan Fire Department. They even let the kids get in their fire trucks and honk the horns. Even though I felt dumb calling, I am glad I did and the fire was put out.
Russell was on shift at the time and heard the call go out. This is the CAD call screen giving the fire fighters all of the information they need. When he heard the address and the possible structure fire page, he knew that was our house and started calling me. Because Hyrum is out of his service area he couldn't just jump and go to the call. He couldn't get a hold of me on the phone because I was on the phone with 911 so he called our neighbor to come check on us. Then I heard over the radio him say "That is my house we will be there in a minute!" His co-workers all told him to never say "That is my house." over the radio. His chief let him take the ambulance out to our house to check on us. By the time he got there, the fire was out and the Hyrum FD was getting ready to leave. They immediately started razzing him and saying Hyrum was better than Logan. We didn't care, we were just glad we were safe and the fire was out. Russell said that the rest of his shift he was being teased but then he also heard a bunch of stories about other fire fighters houses being burned. So I guess it happens to everyone even if you are a fire fighter and should know better. A lot of our friends and family members were also teasing us saying we wanted job security and things like that. I am so glad we were safe. The kids were pretty shaken up and kept saying things like they didn't want the house to burn down because they would miss their toys and things. I had to explain that we could get new toys and even a new house but we could not get a new Emily or a new Colby or a new Logan so we were blessed to be safe. While I was outside trying to put out the fire and on the phone with 911, the kids got together and said a prayer. Emily said to Colby "Should we say a prayer?" and Colby said "Yeah." So all three of them got together and said a prayer that we would be safe and the fire would get out. When they told me this, I couldn't help but be so proud of them for asking help from Heavenly Father. I didn't even think of that! I told them thank you for saying a prayer and that their prayer had been answered. That night when we said bedtime prayers, we remembered to thank Heavenly Father for answering their prayers and keeping us safe. Sometimes these kids amaze me!
It was after midnight when I finally went to bed because the adrenaline was still pumping and I couldn't calm down. I kept looking out the back window to make sure the fire hadn't started up again. Finally I was able to go to sleep.
This morning we woke up and realized how blessed we were to still have our house so I decided we needed take better care of it. We spent the day cleaning the house top to bottom. While we were cleaning, I told Emily to go downstairs and get something. Then I heard her yelling upstairs to me something about how cute these mice were. I rushed downstairs to see what she was talking about and we found these two new little friends:
Yeah these nasty little mice were in our window well. I couldn't believe it. I knew there were mice in the field behind our house but I hoped they would never come to our house. I really hope they don't come in our house especially this winter. So now I don't know what to do about these stupid little mice. I hope they stay in the window well until Russell comes home and gets them. Or maybe a cat will jump down there and eat them. I really just hope they don't get into the house! Man if it isn't one thing it is another! I am just glad we are safe.
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