Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Yesterday, I blogged about how I kept Sadie, Foster and myself safe from a nervous rattlesnake earlier in the day.  One would think that would be enough excitement for one day.  But then, this is my life we’re talking about, so the excitement continued….

Later in the day, I wanted to stop to get a late lunch.  Realizing I didn’t have my reading book with me, I decided to run home, get it and return to where I wanted to eat.  But those plans were quickly doused.

Driving up one of the main boulevards to the hills where I live, I noticed a lot of haze up ahead and to my right at the base of the mountains.  But something about the haze didn’t look quite right.  Taking a closer look as I drove closer, I realized it was too centralized to be haze.  Following the line of haze to its source, I realized it was a fire that had just broken out in the hills.

Oh, great!

Ever since moving to this house and having two horrendous fires two years in a row that threatened my house, I’ve been a little wary of anything that resembles a fire in the hills near my house.  So, my elevated heart rate and accelerated breathing came as no surprise when I plotted where the source of the fire was and realize it was less than three miles from my house with the wind blowing the flames my way and a delectable path of eleven-year-old vegetation in its path offering itself up as fuel.

Dandy!

Within moments, I had my cell phone out and was calling in the fire.  When the dispatcher came on the line, she asked for the house address of the fire.  When I told her that it wasn’t a house fire but one that had just begun in the hills, she paused with my conversation and began dispatching the appropriate teams to the locale. 

I didn’t even make it the next mile up the road before having to pull over for the screeching sirens of a county fire truck that blared past.  Then, turning on my street and heading to my house, I noticed our city fire truck pull out of the station, just two doors down, and hurry towards the blaze.  By the time I’d pulled to the end of my driveway, a sheriff’s helicopter was flying over my house en route to the fire.

Way to go, team firefighters!

The dispatcher told me that she’d received a call just prior to mine about the same fire.  That coupled with my call put the teams necessary in motion to get a jumpstart on what could’ve been another devastating fire in our hills.

Going into my house, I heard more and more sirens of approaching fire trucks as they made their way to the fire.  A calm washed over me, knowing that those of us nearby were safe and that the firefighters had the situation under control.  It took about an hour and a half of intense fighting, but the teams knocked out the fire, the evidence of which was fire rigs making their way back down the hill, the occupants of said vehicles covered in black soot, yet looking satisfied with a job well done.

Living at the hillside definitely has its exciting moments!