burning bush

Tonight as we were sitting down to dinner, I saw a flash of light in the neighbor's yard. It wasn't exactly clear what was happening, but something definitely was wrong. I suspect there was an addition of too much lighter fluid to the grill and POOF - up went a few branches. Thankfully they reacted quickly and the crisis was averted.

It was a bit scary. The neighbor is behind us, and there is a line of trees along the end of their yard, along our fence. If that went up, it is only the lawn between the fire and the house. Thankfully the sprinklers had just gone off. Still, one more reason to add a pool. No?

This little fire scare reminded me of an incident that happened when we were living in Austin. We had come back from spending the day in the Hill Country in an effort to get away from the craziness that had entered my life with my mother's death. It was July 4th weekend, but not Independence Day. I got out of the car and as I started walking towards the house, noticed that the fence was on fire and one of our bushes was burning!

Our neighbor, a fire fighter on medical leave, had rented one of those gigantic grills - the kind you need to hitch to the back of a truck to move. He had dumped the used charcoal in his yard, and went to return the grill. He didn't douse the hot charcoal, and it started a small grass fire that made its way to our shared wooden fence.

Their dog was in their yard, barking. No one was home - I tried knocking and ringing the bell. I turned on their hose in their front yard and tried and put out the fire, but it was the kind that had holes in it, so it didn't help. Meanwhile B got out our hose and I called 911.

Fire trucks were on the scene within three minutes. The operator kept me on the line until help arrived. We could almost immediately hear the sirens heading my way.

Once I knew things were taken care of, I went inside. But before I did, our neighbor returned. He actually had the gall to tell the firefighters on scene that I had over-reacted by calling them. I had no idea how long the fire had been burning, or when he would be returning. The guys were buddies of his, so I don't think he wasn't even cited.

on the night stand :: The Pixar Touch