This was not the way I wanted to start my Saturday morning before Easter…….
but I am thankful because it could have been so much worse.
My family is unharmed and our house suffered minimal damage…..however, the fire chief stated that 3 more minutes and we would have lost the back side of our house.
The events are unbelievable and I hesitate to even try to explain because it doesn’t make sense-the firemen and fire chief were completely baffled as well.
It was Saturday morning, I was the first one up. I made myself a cup of coffee and sat down at the kitchen table to check my emails. My children woke up and sat on the couch to watch cartoons, my husband woke up and went into the bathroom to take his shower. I started to prepare some tea on our stove and then walked over to my counter. As I approached the counter I felt heat….I thought it was from the stove so I turned around to check but the stove was fine. I moved my hands around the spot I felt heat and it was HOT..I opened the cupboard where our sink is and flames jumped out at me. I panicked, I screamed for my husband to help, my kids came in to see what I was screaming about and when they saw the fire they started crying, the house started filling with smoke within seconds. Our smoke alarms started going off, I was still screaming for my husband to help and I couldn’t remember where our fire extinguisher was. I grabbed the phone and dialed 911 as I rushed my children out of the house.
Meanwhile, my husband had grabbed the sprayer to our sink which had already started to melt and he just started spraying the fire. Also, the fire had melted the water line hose and water was spraying out from there as well. I was outside screaming for my husband to get out because the smoke was so bad, but he wouldn’t listen. He opened the windows and turned on fans and then ran out. We stood there waiting for the fire truck watching smoke billow out of our upstairs windows. I had no idea what the damage was at this point, and I was scared. I texted all of my good friends asking for them to pray.
The firemen arrived and went into the house. There was no fire at this point but lots of smoke. I don’t know what they did in the house but I am assuming they looked around and checked everything. They noticed that water was pouring down into the basement and dripping onto my husbands computer and they moved that away from the wall. The wall was soaked with water.
One of the firemen came out and and asked me about some unmarked white liquid that I had in a water jug…..I tried to explain that it was my homemade liquid handsoap…I don’t know if he believed me though. I also had my citrus cleaner sitting out but they didn’t question me about that….probably because they could see orange peels floating in the liquid. The worst though is when they saw my kombucha scoby in a glass mason jar. This thing looks like an alien in a jar….I stumbled my way through explaining that it is a health drink that I make. LUCKILY, none of these items were burned or were part of the fire!!
As they pulled out the burnt, wet mess of items under my sink we found the fire extinguisher…it had been behind the fire….
Can you see it back there? Tucked away in the corner out of reach from my children, but also out of reach when we needed it! NOTE: find a better place for the extinguisher!
Look at that mess!
The fire chief was stumped after investigating the cause of the fire….it started on the outside corner of my husbands lunch box….it had been sitting on some dry kitchen towels. From what he could tell his only speculation was that the pressure from the lunchbox sitting on top of the towels caused enough heat to cause a fire…..?????????????????
Even he said that is almost impossible and that this scenario couldn’t ever be replicated even in one of the training labs. It was a freak thing.
The electrical boxes were on the other side of the cupboard and didn’t receive any damage, there was 1 bottle of Green Works cleaner that was close by and the fire chief was sure that it hadn’t been the cause. No other chemicals were by the fire. However, I did have a gelled fuel container sitting directly on the other side of the cupboard wall touching the fire but it wasn’t burned..thank God because it is extremely combustible!
So here is what we were left with when all the fire men left…..
The fire chief was baffled that there were plastic bags sitting next to the fire that didn’t burn…..
All of our bottom cabinets will have to replaced, the counter top and sink were burned, the faucet, water line, and hose were all burned, the basement wall needs to be repaired and painted, and of course we will have to replace my husband’s beloved lunch box and I will need some new kitchen towels. We bought some volcanc rocks to place throughout our house that are supposed to soak up the smoke smell. That smell is the worst….it is like smelling burnt popcorn and it still hasn’t gone away. I also had to wash all of our bedding before we used it to sleep with. I will have to clean all of my silverware, dishes, and appliances once the sink is fixed because everything is covered in soot. Overall, I would say not that big of a deal though! I am very thankful!
The worst part about this whole event is the fear that came when it was time to go to bed…..my children were frightened to sleep and my husband and I were hesitant to close our eyes, not knowing what started the fire…….
I believe in miracles though, and I believe that God takes care of His children……
John 16:33 ”I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
I do not choose to view this as something bad that has happened to our family, I choose to believe that God took care of us in every circumstance that occured. The “what if’s” in this situation are endless….but I refuse to dwell on them!
Have you ever had to deal with a house fire???
