If you have ever had a fire in your house, you might understand the title of my post today! On December 2nd, things got a little crazy in our house. Well, I guess I should say that got a little crazy for me!
I was sitting on my couch a little before nine in the morning, working on my laptop and enjoying my coffee. I’d just finished a book a couple of days before and I was thinking of taking the month off to enjoy the holidays. In fact, I’m pretty sure at the time, I had been digging through recipes that I wanted to try out.
Anyway, as I sat there, there was a huge ZAP that went through my house and my lights flickered. For a moment, I thought that a tree limb must have come down someplace and hit a power line. I didn’t think anything else about it, and a few minutes later went into my kitchen to cook breakfast.
Except when I turned my stove on, I suddenly realized that I could smell something funny, kind of sweet in a way and I checked my burners, then ran downstairs, that funny zapping noise now causing me a little bit of concern. My basement was fine, and I returned to the kitchen, where everything was normal, except the odor was stronger and I glanced toward the hallway. Imagine my surprise when I saw smoke drifting down my hallway!
I rushed down the hall, threw open my office door (Which leads to a big addition to our house — including our bedrooms) and found the room full of hazy smoke! SNAP–talk about a zap! my heart about jumped out of my throat!
Clothes, I needed clothes, shoes too! It’s cold out! I have never gotten dressed so fast, my robe, slippers, PJ’s went everywhere as I looked around and didn’t see any flames. Crap! Was it in the walls? Not good!
I raced back to the kitchen, my dogs were getting antsy, and luckily went right out the back door when I opened it. Phone, keys to the car and I finally called 911.
On my way out of the house, I opened the garage removed my car in case I needed to put my dogs somewhere safe, and then waited.
Four fire trucks showed up at my house. FOUR! I was the talk of the neighborhood for a couple of days, and I even got the chance to meet a few neighbors that I hadn’t really known well.
The good news is that it was a major electrical short in my addition’s heating unit in the attic, and the fire had been contained to that- we were lucky! The bad news… That little bit of smoke caused such a mess!
Over fifty loads of laundry were done the next week, and I slept on the couch for two weeks. My hubby was out of town for the first week, wasn’t he lucky, and when he returned, he snagged a cot from work so he could sleep next to me in the living room.
Everything had to be cleaned, new beds had to be purchased, the walls had to be wiped down, the carpets professional cleaned and the air ducts! Needless to say that I didn’t get much holiday baking done, but that side of the house has never been so clean!
I feel for anyone who has ever had a fire in their house. I could not imagine having lost all of our things, or even a portion. Dealing with insurance and contractors is never fun, but luckily about two weeks after the fire, things started to fall back into place.
Never one to let an opportunity go, of course, my experience will be put to good use as I add it to an upcoming book in the Loving A Young Series! Make sure to check it out! Wesley, Book 1 released in December, and Henley, Book 2 releases on January 25th! Huntley will be the book where I deal with this story. It seems only fitting since Hunt is a fireman!
Stacy Eaton is a USA Today Best Selling author and began her writing career in October of 2010. Stacy took an early retirement from law enforcement after over fifteen years of service in 2016, with her last three years in investigations and crime scene investigation to write full time.
Stacy is very involved in Domestic Violence Awareness and served on the Board of Directors for her local Domestic Violence Center for three years.
