Fire on My Street

Yesterday a house at the end of my street went up in flames. I was working on my computer and I'm really not sure what made me look up or what exactly caught my attention that something was wrong but for whatever reason, I went to the windows at the front of my house and saw black smoke. I knew black smoke means fire so I immediately knew something was on fire. I grabbed my coat and ran outside to see what was on fire... and could see flames through the trees.

Cops started to arrive and soon after, the firetrucks. The hydrant is on the other end of the street so the firetruck backed up to hook up to the hydrant and let the hose out. The hose went down the middle of the street the entire block. That's a long hose! Of course, the street was blocked off as well. Neighbors started coming out of their houses and I also walked down the street a few houses to see what was going on and see if there was anything I could do to help.

Unfortunately, I do not know most of the neighbors down at that end of the street so I didn't know if that house was occupied or if it was empty. I found out later that the house was vacant. The house is a total loss and you can see the backyard from the front door (which is now gone). This was on local TV news. You can watch the video here.

Arson goes UP during Halloween week

The city is saying this fire was the beginning of the annual fires that happen every year just before Halloween. I don't know if that is a national problem but its a very serious local problem. Many many empty houses go up in flames during the week of Halloween due to arson.

With the high rate of foreclosures, etc, there are a lot of empty houses in this area. Many of the communities will be walking around their streets tonight and through the weekend in an attempt to keep the fires to a minimum. God bless them for their service and their time and keep us all safe.