lspencer534
12-08-2014, 7:15pm
This is the season for houses burning down. Thankfully I've never had a house to burn, but I know several people who have, from my "across the back pasture" neighbors" to a lawyer friend whose paralegal set his house on fire.
The "across the back pasture" neighbors was a curious situation to me. One night about 9:00 I was going from my house to the work shop when I noticed something from the corner of my eye: A bright, sky-licking flame that I could hear from 1/8 mile away and smell the acrid burning of tar (shingles). I ran back inside and called them. The conversation went like this:
Me: "Doc, your house is on fire! Get out!"
Doc: "I don't see anything. I'm just watching TV with my wife. The TV is flickering, though."
Me: "Your house is definitely on fire. I'm calling the Fire Department."
I called the FD and then ran across the pasture to my neighbor's. By the time I got there, they were standing outside their house watching it quickly burn. By the time the fire trucks got there, the home was almost completely burned. I won't go into the incompetence of the fire department, from trying to open a door by chopping it with an axe (just break a window) to running out of water when there's a 50,000 gallon swimming pool on the property.
My question is, can a person not even know their house is on fire when in fact it has flames leaping 20' from the roof up in the air, is making burning noises, and has the stench of tar burning? And how can the electricity (to run a TV and lights) still be on?
The "across the back pasture" neighbors was a curious situation to me. One night about 9:00 I was going from my house to the work shop when I noticed something from the corner of my eye: A bright, sky-licking flame that I could hear from 1/8 mile away and smell the acrid burning of tar (shingles). I ran back inside and called them. The conversation went like this:
Me: "Doc, your house is on fire! Get out!"
Doc: "I don't see anything. I'm just watching TV with my wife. The TV is flickering, though."
Me: "Your house is definitely on fire. I'm calling the Fire Department."
I called the FD and then ran across the pasture to my neighbor's. By the time I got there, they were standing outside their house watching it quickly burn. By the time the fire trucks got there, the home was almost completely burned. I won't go into the incompetence of the fire department, from trying to open a door by chopping it with an axe (just break a window) to running out of water when there's a 50,000 gallon swimming pool on the property.
My question is, can a person not even know their house is on fire when in fact it has flames leaping 20' from the roof up in the air, is making burning noises, and has the stench of tar burning? And how can the electricity (to run a TV and lights) still be on?