I Am Afraid of Fire
I was 12 at the time, It was January 3rd. We lived in this old red 2 story house with a coal stove in the cellar. I had put the puppy out on the porch roof as we had done so many times so he could do his business then let him back inside the house. I had laid down and fell asleep, then around 3 in the morning My Dad comes to wake us 3 girls up and said we have to go and get out of the house, I remember my dad carrying my youngest sister downstairs, My brother had woke up to fire coming out of the walls as that's the way he put it, and i found out that our neighbor woke his mom up and said the H**** house is on fire. My baby sister had gone back in the house not realizing just what was happenning, she is 5 years younger than I am, Dad ran back into the house to get her. Dad told me that there was a room that had no electricity hooked up in it, but when he went back inside to find her that room was all lit up and that's where dad went, there was NO fire in that room just a very bright light lighting up the room so dad could see, and that's where my dad found susan. He picked her up and ran out again. There is no explaination about why that room was so lit up that night, the only reasoning we could figure out is that someone was watching over all of us that night. I remember 1 thing that I wanted so badly as a child and I got it, It was an easy bake oven, I remember mom helping me make small cakes in it, After the fire had gotten put out and the fireman were there a day later to make sure there were no hot spots, They took the time to help us look for our puppy but no bones could be found of snoopy.We never did find him and often wondered if another family took him in or if the fire got that hot to disintigrate the bones. After the fire us 5 kids were staying all over with relatives, I was thankful we had a place to stay but what I missed was being all together, the 7 of us, my 5 siblings and mom and dad. I even got a pink pig pajama bag and will make comments to mom on occassion about that pink pig, A few years back mom found a pink pig pajama bag and gave it to me, I still have it.It was a 8 alarm fire and so cold out that the water in the hoses was freezing as it ws shot out of the hose. I have the write up from the local paper here somewhere and all that was left standing are springs from a mattress and the refridgerater.
It isn't that I'm afraid of fire mind you, But i every now and then think back on how lucky we were to make it out alive, It's devastating to loose everything you have to fire or to anything for that matter, I don't ever want to go through anything like that again,
Now that I'm almost 50 and have kids of my own, I realize how blessed I really am to have my kids, and thankful to still have my brothers and sisters and my mom still here,
