Fire

This is a picture of what is left of a Condo in Urbandale, Iowa following a fire the other day. One of my Lodge Brother's friends lived in the building and the family lost everything except the clothing on their backs. Fortunately no one was hurt.

Fires are frightening. Almost 58 years ago right after my sister was born we had a fire in our home in Atlantic, Iowa. My step-father, Chuck, was sleeping on a bed in the dining room right between windows where he could get a breeze. It was a very hot day. I was sleeping in his bed and mother was in hers. The baby (Ginny) was still in a basket (that is how I knew it was just after she was born.)

Mother was a smoker and it was her habit to get into bed and have one last cigarette of the day. She had an ashtray on the corner of the bed and evidently instead of putting the cigarette out in the ashtray she put it out on the mattress. Not a good place. It caught the mattress on fire which in turn caught the sheer curtains on fire and fortunately woke mother up before she was burned. They heard her yell "Fire!" three blocks away.

Then began the most incredible scenario I have ever been involved with. As I said my step-father was sleeping in the dining room. What I did not mention was that he was sleeping in the nude. The lady from upstairs (we had the main floor and she had the upstairs of an older home) came down stairs and saw him and realized that she wasn't wearing a top so she went back upstairs to get a top on and Chuck put on his boxers. I in the meantime decided to try and beat the flames out with a pillow. A feather pillow. The pillow case caught on fire and we had feathers all over the house. When that did not work we got pans and ran to the kitchen to get water to throw on the fire.

The thing is we ran right through the bathroom with its old fashioned claw foot tub to get water out of the kitchen sink. By this time the fire department had arrived. We had taken my sister out (in her basket) and placed her on the front porch. They put out the fire and as I remember it Chuck and Mom and Marge (the lady from upstairs) disappeared. They may have gone upstairs for coffee or whatever. I just remember I (10 years old) was left to take care of my sister while they post mortemed the fire. They decided that the biggest part of the mess was the feathers from the pillow which I had used. And they finally realized that they could have gotten water from the tub in the bathroom.. Oh yes and I decided I could have used something other than a frying pan to use to get water.

I think that that event scarred me for life about fires. I can still see in my mind the flames going up the curtains and remember the panic of being in a fire. I feel sorry for Kurt's friends and the others who were in the fire. It is not an easy thing to go through.

Thanks for stopping by. Hugs, j

Oh and by the way I had a good check up with my doctor this morning. Next Monday I am having some surgery done on my right large toe. Not looking forward to it but it needs fixing so I had the works done this morning. At least I did not have to have a new prescription.