It was 2:00 AM and we woke up to this.
There was a brush fire in the preserve area behind our house. This is one of the driest years that Florida has seen in a long time. Last night it was really windy too. The flames reached 30 feet high and came within 6 feet of our neighbor’s back patio. We are blessed the wind did not blow the fire in the direction of our wooden play set and, of course, the back of our house.
Our neighbor’s dog, Abigail, was barking up a storm at 2:00 AM. So our dog, Steve, decided to bark back. I was completely annoyed. Steve finally calmed down and then we heard a large truck drive down the street. It sounded like a giant moving van and I could not believe the bad luck we were having. I desperately wanted to go back to sleep! Hubbie and I looked out our bedroom window and saw two firetrucks in front of our house. That still did not make me think “fire.” Weird, I know, but they were quiet. No sirens. No firemen running in panic. They just started calmly taking out their hoses and walking to the back of our houses.
Hubbie went to look outside and that’s when I heard him say “OMG! FIRE!” We panicked and ran to grab the kids. They were so confused. We waited by the front of the house while Hubbie ran out again to find a fireman. The fireman said we didn’t need to come outside and that they had it under control. So we watched from the safety of our living room while the fire grew smaller and smaller and finally turned into smoke. It took about an hour. And then another hour to get everyone back to bed.
We were exhausted in the morning. We heard that it could have been started by a cigarette butt or even an ember from a charcoal grill. Thank goodness we have a gas grill. Our backyard looks fine and the preserve area between our houses actually looks nice now that it’s been cleared out. It was just a lot of tall trees and brush. That’s the positive. The negative is that it smells a little smokey and I’ll probably worry about it happening again. But there’s awareness now and we need it to rain!
I must thank our trusty neighbor, Abigail. She LOVES to bark and this time it was a GOOD thing.
Also, Bean is obsessed with firemen now. That’s also a good thing.
