Firetruck Friday

We had an exciting Friday night.

First of all the lady behind us was screaming over the fence, but we were in the lounge room playing with the Wii. Finally when we figured out she was yelling we went to see what the problem was.

It was a big problem - the house two doors down from us was on fire.

I grabbed the phone and Dan ran outside.
I rang the Fire brigade, although they had already been rung, I rang just to check.

The guy on the other end (at the station) asked me what was happening, could I see flames - well no, I was inside at that point, so I went outside to look.

The whole street was a cloud of smoke as I walked outside.

I relayed this message, couldn't see flames but could see a lot of smoke (where there's smoke there's fire I guess) and he said he'd send another.

I went down the street to check it out. I sort of know the people living there and I wave to the teenage guy as he comes and goes.

Turns out some strangers were driving past the street and saw the smoked and pulled in to help. I arrived to find them and another neighbour getting the guy (and his girlfriend) out of the house.

The boy (we'll call him J) was looking terrible. He'd been inside trying to put the fire out, which by the look of him was a pretty dumb thing to be doing.

I rang the firies again to pass on that the fire was out (although there was still a lot of smoke pouring out, so we sort of doubted the fire was out) and J + girlfriend were outside and the only ones in the building.

The fireman said he'd call of one unit (we live on a small street, didn't know how all three would fit anyway) but there would be a police unit and an ambulance attending too.

Several minutes later one truck turned up - and got out all their gear to deal with J, he was in a bad state. A cop car pulled up, the second firetruck, an unmarked cop car (parked in a strange way sort of up our gutter) a paddy wagon, then finally the ambulance and even a fairly high ranking Police official turned up.

(The white car belongs to the neighbour, who came out thinking it was our house as the smell of smoke was that strong.)


This is looking down from my driveway. You can see J's girlfriend squatting down next to J who was sitting on the ground by this stage and the firies around. They are plain clothed police behind the tree.

Across the road looking down the firetrucks and police car. (We think it was a quiet night down at the station. West Ryde is also home to the riot squad because it's pretty much 30 minutes anywhere from West Ryde, so the police station is normally well stocked.)

There were plenty of neighbours coming to look and if anyone knew anyone on our street they came round for a chat.

The kids loved the action, although it was more serious than the visit last time.

Here's Lightning McGeorgie, abuzz with excitement.

We did eventually go back inside but the lights were flashing through the front rooms so there was no point putting G into bed. We had to wait till everyone went.

She was happy to play a bit more Wii with Daddy though, and that actually made it much easier to bring the excitement level down a notch.

We still haven't found out what happened in the house. J's parents were home the next day - not sure what time they came home that night, and his older brother also came home too.

The firemen did use the hoses in the house so they would have had to deal with all the smoke damage and water damage, but at least no one was hurt.