Our House Started FIre Tonight

Tonight as we were heading to bed on a blizzardy night, we noticed a smokey smell in the living room. We had a fire earlier, so we almost dismissed it. We looked a little closer and thought we saw smoke by the mantle, but everything was cool to the touch and we could see no sign of flame.

While Jeff checked upstairs and down, I listened to the chimney and heard sounds of fire. I called the non-emergency number (SO norwegian of me) and they referred me quickly to the 9-1-1 FD. Smoke started coming out more quickly and I am sure I sounded panicked when I talked to the dispatcher.

We woke up the boys and then herded them to the back porch and lined up their boots, coats, mitties and set them down with blankets. Soon the sounds of fire trucks comforted me and we let a flood of fire fighters in. They started tearing apart our mantle and bookshelves and then one guy went outside and noticed that the siding was melting. Soon, a bunch of dudes were chopping a hole in the outside wall of the house and suddenly flames were spilling out. It was so scary!!

They spent a lot of time chopping and spraying. Short and short, there is a 4 'X 4' foot hole in the side of our house and signs that there was a crack in our chimney liner. The bricks are sooty and charred and the 2 X 4s were on fire. They FFs left, confident that the fire is out, but I know Jeff and I will be up all night worried.

They said we had a weird shaped chimney that was pretty thick with creosote. I am posting this to remind you all to get your fireplaces checked. We came within inches of going to bed with a fire brewing in our chimney and walls. Even an hour later could have been an utter disaster.