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I came within 5 feet of loosing everything....

....yesterday. yesterday afternoon i took our new puppy out for an afternoon walk behind the house, nothing unusual going on. i brought the pup back inside and layed down in bed to watch a movie with Darla. about a half hour later i hear a knock at the front door and get up to go answer, at the door was a guy and he said "do you know there is a fire behind your house?"...........i said "what?", not really comprehending......."there is a fire behind your house!"

i run to the back door and he was right there was an area 200 feet wide and 40 feet deep worth of grass on fire behind the house, within 10 feet of the house in places. i screamed at darla to call 911 and go out to start beating it down with a scoop shovel where its close to the house. before the fire department got out here(we are 3 miles outside city limits) it had got as close as 5 feet in places but i and 4 complete strangers were beating it back fairly effectively. Darla was hauling animals and important stuff out the front door checking everyonce in awhile on the progress of the fire. the fire department got the whole thing under control in 15 minutes. Darla had managed to get all the furry critters out and most of my hard to replace rifles out along with some other odds and ends before i came around front and told her everything was under control. i was quite impressed, she caught the 3 chinchillas in 1/8 the time the last time we tried to get them all out at the same time.

we are still not sure what started the fire but we really didnt loose anything other than some garden hose. we were without power for awhile as the fire ate up our connection at the power pole soon after i got out side. so no power means no AC so my animals went in to town along with my highland Nepenthes and a few others to my parents house to sit in their air conditioned dining room. luckly we got power again within 4 hours. it was a darn close call. still cant believe there was not so much as a puff of smoke a mear half hour before i got the knock on the door.
 
That's really strange. It's a good thing it turned out ok.
 
oh.. my..god! i can't imagine that! do you think it was arsen maybe? that's really strange.

but atleast everything is ok.
 
doubt it was arson. im 100 yards off of the highway and it happened behind the house anyways. wasnt an electrical short as the power box was one of the last things to go up. i dont smoke so its not like i tossed a cig when i was out walking the dog, we dont burn garbage so it wasnt from that. it was jut a freak thing. had the guy not come and knocked on our door we would have been in serious trouble.
 
Wow...that could have been very tragic. I'm glad it turned out alright. I live in fear of a fire at my house. I have so many of my grandmother's things that are dear to me and irreplaceable. That's really scary...I guess there were no storms at the time (lightning)?

We've had two near tragedies...your fire and Nikki having a gun shoved in her face.
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Things usually come in threes...

I'm glad you both are safe.
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no storm, middle of the day, sun shining. it wasnt even terribly hot, maybe 90, humidity was high from a light rain storm the night before. almost no breeze. actually pretty poor conditions for a fire to start without an obvious cause
 
You do know that the sun shining on dry grass through a broken piece of glass or mirror is all it would take to start a grass fire! If this area is between the highway and your house, I'd go make sure tin cans and other trash is picked up just to prevent that sort of freak fire from happening.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]had the guy not come and knocked on our door we would have been in serious trouble.

That's what I was thinkin'! Boy oh boy! Do you know who the gentleman was?

Man, that's a crazy story. I'm glad to hear that you and Darla and all your plants and animals are well. Crikey...
 
never met him before but i kind of know who he is. very nice gentleman from one town over. i think Darla got his name.

we did discover one thing with this fire though. not even fire can kill that dang creeping jenny. there is a patch of it that is growing green and happy as can be. the fire just burned around it. dang weed. ill have to get a pic of it.
 
  • #10
I'm glad you guys are okay. I'd buy that gentleman dinner! Boy, fires are something else. Been there!
 
  • #11
Wow, that's really weird! You're lucky that guy showed up! Did the firemen have any idea what started the fire? Usually they know how to find out in order to prevent further fires.

BTW, chinchillas are cute.
 
  • #12
nope, im in a small town so the fire department is all volenteer. plus being out on the prairie, grass fires arent all that uncommon. unless there is reason to suspect criminal activity they dont waist money investigating. i really dont blaim them. besides as near as i can figure as to about where it started given how it spread the most logical explination that i can come up with is that my geese were out playing with matches
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  • #13
Glad to hear that you're alright and that it was put out in time.
 
  • #14
Wow,that's scary!I'm glad you guys are ok!~Niki~
 
  • #15
Yes, glad everything is intact, the Force must have been with you.
And that is a crazy thing, how the creeping jenny was unscathed- and folks say D.capensis is "bomb proof"
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  • #16
I'm glad everything is ok.
 
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