House Fire
As I stood out on the street on that cold Sunday night, I watched smoke ooze out of every nook and cranny of our house’s roof. The sight disheartened me because I knew we might lose everything from a house fire.
Earlier that day, my dad started the first fire in the fireplace for the season. For some unknown reason, smoke started to fill our house. The only sign of fire, though, was in the fireplace. We had the same problem last year, and our house didn’t catch fire when it happened, so it wasn’t a major concern. To vent out the smoke, we opened some of the doors that went outside. We didn’t try to extinguish the fire, but later on both my dad and I wished that we had.
I was sitting in my room doing homework when I heard my dad frantically calling my name. He shouted, “I think the house is on fire. Put a jacket on and get outside.”
When I rushed out of my room, everything seemed normal. There was still smoke in the house from earlier, but there were no flames darting out of the walls. I wondered what the problem was. Fortunately, my dad was able to catch the fire by hearing crackling inside of the walls. When he went outside to investigate, he saw flames coming from the side of our house.
I walked outside and waited for my dad to come out after he called 911.
We stood outside waiting for the firetrucks to show up. Every second that passed meant to me that the fire had more time to spread. Thankfully, the first firetruck pulled up within a couple of minutes. From the street, I watched firefighters run through our front door as smoke came from the entire roof of the house. I hoped and prayed that the damage would be minimal but seeing the whole roof leaking smoke made my dad and I think that the whole attic was ablaze.
After a while, it seemed that the fire was controlled enough to not cause any damage. However, we were afraid that the whole house would receive some water damage from firefighters spraying the entire attic. Eventually, it was safe enough for us to go back into the house. The fireplace was replaced with a huge hole in the wall. The ceiling and walls were ripped apart by the firefighters to make sure the fire had not spread. Debris lay all over the floor, and our Christmas tree was covered in insulation. Despite the unwelcoming sight, the rest of the house looked fine. The fire did not spread more than 20 feet away from the fireplace.
After the firefighters left, a few relatives came over to help us pack up food, clothes, and valuables. Some of our electronics and food would stay at our relatives’ houses while our personal items would stay with us at a hotel. It was midnight by the time I was able to sleep at the hotel.
The next day, I was extremely tired, yet I decided to go to school anyway. The first thing I did was finish the homework I saved for Sunday night. I made it through the day just fine despite my grogginess. We stayed only a few days at the hotel until it was time for us to move again to an apartment. It was a small space, but it was well furnished. We stayed at the apartment until January 31 when the repairs on our house had been completed. Workers repainted some of the walls, installed new carpet, and put in a new fireplace. Instead of a wood burning fireplace, we now have a gas log fireplace.
We spent a few days moving furniture around so we were able to return to our normal lives. Boxes filled our entire garage with stuff that went through cleaning to get rid of the smoke smell. Some of those boxes are going to stay untouched until we move again sometime around May. Before the house fire, my dad started construction on a new house that would be suitable for him to retire.
If anything good were to come out of this incident, I think it would be the fact that it helped us get closer to moving to a new house. Other than having some of our items packed up for us, it was also a good time to fix a few things around the house. New carpet replaced any old carpet that was in the house. We added a new dishwasher since the other one was 30 years old. Above all, there is a new, reliable, gas fireplace that we enjoyed during a couple of snowy weeks.
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