ASPIRE4GRACE's Journal

I have one of the most "memorable" New Year's Eve's of my life, if not THE most memorable:

I haven't gotten fireworks for July 4th or New Year's Eve in years. I wanted to make our first New Year's Eve in our new house special for my kids. I succeeded.

I went to the fireworks display and first thing I said to them was that I didn't want ANYTHING that could start our field on fire because it's been VERY dry here, and everything is dangerously dry. They told me, "Oh, no ma'am, we don't even SELL anything like that!! We can't anymore. You'll be fine as long as you're careful and don't do it right in the field." Ok, great.

I got a bunch of firworks for my kids, and we were doing them outside. We were being careful, because we could tell that if we weren't, we could have a fire on our hands. Well, the wind was AWFUL yesterday, because we had a front come through. (I could feel that front all stinkin' day! Ouch!) So we were very careful to make sure we did the FireWorks upwind, so that if something did happen, it wouldn't burn our house down. The kids were having so much fun! Even my snotty 16 yr old son was giggling! Made me so happy!

Well, sure enough, the wind caught one of them on the ground, rolled it across our driveway, and our front field caught fire. That fire started up SOOOOOOO FAST! Was just like kindling! Well, basically, that's what it was! We tried to take care of it ourselves, but after a few minutes, it had spread FAST and we knew we had to call 911. It took them about 10-15 mins. to get here. We had about 6-7 firetrucks show up. They were already out, because there were fires going all day. We were #7 of the evening. We'd been watching another one for a couple of hours, that was about 3 miles away. We could see and hear the lights and sirens when they got there, because it was so close. If they hadn't gotten it under control, it could have taken out the whole valley, including us. The firemen said it was interesting, because they were working that other fire, and they got it under control, looked up and saw our place on fire. They said, "Well, guess we better get over there!" They said that while they were on the way, they got the call for our address. Because we're in the county, and we don't have fire hydrants out here, we have small fire trucks that carry water.  So it takes more trucks to do the job.

There was a couple that lives down the road, that were a few miles away and saw it when it first started. They were so nice, and they stopped and the guy got out and ran over and tried to help put it out. He stayed until the fire was out. Poor guy, I feel so sorry for him. His boots were ruined, and he had asthma. He was coughing something terrible, and wouldn't even talk to me. He told his girlfriend to get him home right away, because he needed his inhaler. I wish I knew exactly where they lived so I could do something to say thank you. I feel bad about it.

Well, we had tons of volunteer firemen, and fire chief running around. Looks like about 6 acres were burned. Black as night, and burned to the dirt, and even jumped onto the neighbor's property. Not anything, just brush and a tree. Stinking fire even started up again right about at the original starting point after the firefighters had left. Luckily, we were not too far away, watching for just that in case it happened!! But had we been inside, the rest of the front field would have gone up! Hubby walked the entire fire line, and said he found a lot of burning embers that could have started back up, so I'm glad he did that. My son's shoes and my hubby's boots are ruined. At least those are the only losses.

The whole thing is just embarrassing! I feel like one of "those" ignorant people that you see on the local news saying, "Well, the wind just took it and poof it went up!" Sheesh! The fire chief was very nice and said, "Oh, no, don't be upset, these things just happen!" How nice!

I had a headache before all of it started, and by the time we were done, I was in so much pain, as you can imagine. My head was killing me, and I was nauseous. I had and still have chills, fever, shivers, everything. I have been in bed since! I hope this doesn't send me into a flare, but not much I can do about it.

So, needless to say, but going to say it anyway, we had a "memorable" New Year's Eve.

I'm just letting you all know that I haven't been around because hubby's been home for the last week and a half, so I've been busy. I'll be back tomorrow probably. Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and an excellent New Year!!!!!