Just a little fire...

...but close enough for us to freak out a little.

I was working in my office Friday afternoon when I heard planes overhead. And they continued for about five minutes. So I got curious and turned on the scanner and heard, "Roger, I'm over the Coyle Springs incident..."

Um, that's my street. I looked outside and there was a lot of smoke. I yelled to the people I saw in the lot asking if they needed help and if they'd called the fire department. They had. I yelled for Jake to get his shoes on, got my hard drive with all of our pictures and got the dogs ready for a quick exit just in case. By the time I got there, the fire department was on scene. Then I called Marla at work to let her know what was going on and that I'd give her an update when I knew more.

And I took some pictures.

I also figured out why I haven't heard our neighbor's boxer in a while. They moved. And the property owner was there on Friday. And he cut down a bunch of weeds and raked them in to a pile. And that's a real good idea with the fire danger. But then he proceeded to try to BURN the debris rather than bag it. No permit. And apparently no brain either. It jumped pretty quick and spread to the lot next to Frank and Marla's. That lot is owned by their parents.

We live in a great neighborhood and everybody jumped and got hoses and shovels and such. And the fire department got here quick. I think Dianne was the neighborhood hero as she vaulted a fence and started hosing it down. And Joel, a math teacher and a few other people came down from up the street.

And once the danger was over, everybody started joking about the old decrepit pine tree - couldn't we have let it burn?



I called Marla back and conferenced in Frank and let them know everything was OK. The scariest thing was how the fire department had to foam the propane tank. If that had caught and blown, it would have been a whole different story.



But everything's OK, and it's great to see how wonderful our neighborhood is in a crisis.