Fire! Fire!

I alluded to being on the scene of a house fire on Saturday morning. It was quite a surreal experience. The house was a few blocks from ours, and when we pulled out of our street, we could see the black smoke. As we turned down the next street, we could see flames from over a block away, coming out of an open garage. Here's the strange part...we saw no emergency vehicles. No one had responded to the scene yet. So what do we do? Well, when you have two people formerly trained to respond to emergencies in the same car, one of them jumps out while the other calls 9-1-1.

You can guess it wasn't me that jumped out. I'm the mommy. I stay with the kids. I get us out of the way. Joel, he's the responder. He goes up to the house, then around the back to see if anyone is still in the house. He gets the older woman out and takes her a house away, where he makes her use his cell phone to call family members. He's the one that tells the cops and the fire fighters (when they arrive 3 minutes later) that no one is in the house and any other facts he knows. He's the one whose adrenaline was pumping so hard when he returned to the car that he could not drive to Oakland.

It's been interesting talking to Padyn about the incident. I pulled around the corner and kept her strapped in so she could not see the garage window exploding and the flames licking the roof. But, she knew what was happening and wanted to watch, so once the firemen got there, I let her unbuckle and watch the fire fighters do their job. I figured she should see that they would take care of it and that it would be ok.

I just remembered that this was the second fire incident she's had experience with. The first was a year ago when a townhouse down the street caught on fire. She and Daddy walked over the next day and saw what the house looked like. She didn't talk about that one as much. Actually seeing the fire this time made it much more real.

She's asked me a few times a day how the fire started and if we'll have a fire in our house. So far, no nightmares or fear associated with it, thankfully, but I'm waiting for that. We just talk about it calmly and how the fire fighters were there to put it out, and that everyone was ok. Not really a scenario you think you'll be dealing with with your preschooler. Not one you are readily prepared for.