Small little fire

I have a little bit of a history with fire. Here is the full story from my latest experience, from last night:

I had gone to bed about 1:15 am, which is a little late for me, but I had been baking and chatting it up with my roommate. At about 3:30 am, I woke up and was really surprised that my room was so bright (I live in a basement apartment with a small window in my room, so I don't usually get a lot of natural light in my room). I looked at my window and saw flames. It took a second to register what the flames meant...and then I grabbed my robe and ran outside. My house was on fire!

The flames were not yet quite to the roof. I ran back inside and pounded on Alysia's door (she does not like to be woken up, and I found out later that she had taken a sleeping pill, was sleeping with an eye mask and had music on) and grabbed my cell phone. I ran back outside and started pounding on the front door of the main house to wake up my landlords. When that didn't work, I ran back in and up the stairs and opened the door that connects the house to the basement (which I originally thought had been locked). I ran into the main house, yellingthat the house was on fire. I called 911, gave my info, and was promised that the fire department would be there shortly (within 90 seconds of my phone call!!). My landlords grabbed a buckets of water and were trying to control the fire, and Alysia and I joined in with pitchers and bowls of water, as the fire was starting to creep down to our entrance of the house.

The fire department came and put out the rest of the fire. We had three firetrucks, and what felt like a million firemen (and one woman!) running around in full gear. One of the firemen asked Alysia and I if we wanted to warm up in the firetruck (it was about 19 degrees and we were in our pjs), which we totally did! Neighbors started to come out of their houses and ask if we were okay.

Apparently, our landlords had had a fire in the fireplace earlier. But, because the house is old (from WWII era), the mortar from the fireplace had started to disintegrate. A little bit of hot ash had worked it's way through the house and outside, where it lit the siding on fire.

In good news- there was no damage to the inside of the house and we were able to sleep in our beds. One of the firemen said that if the fire had reached the roof, it would have been much worse and we could have lost everything. In bad news, our landlords have some damage to the outside and have to rebuild the fireplace from scratch.

Here are some pictures of the night and the damage:

As the trucks arrived...

Making sure that all of the fire was out (the guy in the red jacket is the fire marshall)...

Hanging out in the firetruck, getting warm...

The damage (The bricks that are exposed are from the fireplace)...



This is my window, which is behind the wood pile from the previous picture...

What used to be our trash bin...


All in all, we are feeling very lucky. Thank you to everyone for being so supportive and offering places to sleep and and help in anything we need. Truly, we are very blessed!!