A REALLY Smokey Situation

Yesterday, I posted about our smoke damaged table and chairs that we are re-doing. Apparently smoke smell was just not enough exposure for us… Last night, we were sitting in our living room chatting after Jeremy came home from work when someone ran up to the door, frantically knocking, then informing us that their was a fire behind our house! Thank you, Lord, that this kind stranger saw the fire and ran to tell us about it, because it was spreading like…well, wild fire!

Our house is situated by a walking trail that runs behind our house. There is a grassy buffer between our yard and the trail that runs behind about a mile’s worth of the homes bordering the trail. The grass is a tall, brown wheat-like grass and is super dry even though it’s been rainy here lately. We think someone walking on the trail must have thrown a cigarette butt into the grass which started the fire.

When we first got out back, it was about a 5×5 area of fire. We tried to spray it with the hose, but our 100′ hose wouldn’t reach far enough to cover more than the corner of the area, so we ended up calling the fire department. Our neighbor came out and started beating the fire with a rake and Jeremy ran to grab his metal shovel to beat the fire. Jeremy and our neighbor had just put out the fire as the fire truck pulled up. The firefighters sprayed the area down to make sure the fire didn’t start back up again.

The fire started small, but ended up being about a 15×15 or so area by the time we got it out…and it was spreading toward our garage, the trees, and our neighbor’s fence. So thankful we were all home and the kind woman walking her dog alerted us! Scary! We are so thankful for God’s provision and grace on our house!