FIRE ! (or where the hell have you been 'ed ?)

**confus-ed** · May 15th, 2005, 03:16 AM

'FIRE!!!' apparently attracts more attention than any other call for help - statistically that is, & thats great, unless some 50 ton load is causing gridlock on your local streets, in which case no matter how many times folks call the fire brigaide out it won't stop things burning to a crisp - & that is the lesson I have learnt, along with a few others, over the last month or so !

So lets see .. it was a nice afternoon, I think ?, must have been! , as I was sat in the beer garden of my local (in t'pub !) & someone says, I can see smoke near your house, oh yeah says I that'll be my dad burning rubbish in the garden & thought nothing of it .. 10 minutes later someone says I can see flames & btw dude your dad is sat accross the road in t'other - legged out ! (to translate from 'yorkshire' - 'ed, your father is in the other public house inebriated & is therefore not burning any rubbish !!)

Tick, tick, tick ... Oh F !!! .... OMG - my house is burning down !!! .. with my kid & her grandmother in it !! (don't you just hate those moments of 'realisation' ? - I DO !

)

The distance from my house to the pub is about 100m, & I reckon I was faster home than Ben Johnston could have managed at his steroid induced best !

..

Thankfully its not the house at all but my shed/workshop - trouble is there's 350 litres of diesel (don't ask what for !) around the back of it, which'll go bang in a bigger way than even I can handle ... so straight in the house, pick up one small child, & drag one fat bad tempered granny (no time for explanations) straight outside, whilst shouting very excitedly 'Fire!!' lots & lots (or so I'm told !)..

Then run through lots of smoke & start hauling said diesel out of the way, breath a sigh of relief when done & go search for the hose, conscious now of the wail of sirens - well all I have to say is that one garden hose wasn't up to the job & the firebrigaide are very good at putting out smouldering ashes & I hate a certain haulage company with a passion ! (due to the earlier mentioned large truck breaking down) - it took another 1/4 of hour for the firemen to turn up despite being able to hear them obviously not so far away.

& then to add insult to injury (well not really as there weren't any injuries, other than to 'stuff'), what happens when I fill my insurance forms in ? The guy (the claims assessor dude) seems only to be able to read the part in the fire investigators report about about 'accelerator presence' ! Numpty !...

Anyways after what seemed like a million calls (I'm sure I've said a thousand times not to exagerate

) he finally read the report properly & noted that the cause was electrical (local substation has been spiking everywhere within a certain radius as they try out some new smoothing system ) & thankfully I don't get to add arsonist to my list of sins ..

SO that's why I haven't been here ! (that & my daughter getting 'stressed' by this, which due to her weird immune system meant I was back in hospital with her swapping blood again as a precautionary measure - th1 & 2 cytokine levels were 'off' apparently).

Several of my pals have commented on my 'bravery' in this, I just say I was instictively stupid, sure get you & yours clear, yep that'd be brave if I had to go inside a burning building, but I didn't ! - I just yelled a lot & made folks do what they initially didn't want to a bit faster, which sounds like me usually ! - what might be termed brave was me moving the diesel - but really that was foolish, infact definately stupid, as if I'd left it there I could have claimed for that too !

**TechZ** · May 15th, 2005, 05:34 AM

Good to know that everyone is safe. You reacted and that was enough, you are a hero

Hopefully everything has settled down since then? And you will be back here posting away?

Glad to have you back.

**Platypus** · May 15th, 2005, 06:25 AM

Welcome back, glad things are more back to normal for you. Sounds like fighting the insurance company might have been harder than fighting the fire!

**Mayet** · May 15th, 2005, 07:59 AM

F*%$ I missed you _ED, glad everything is ok. You deserve a medal for all that....well done....

**MobilePCPhysician** · May 15th, 2005, 08:15 AM

You were gone???

**Richard1** · May 15th, 2005, 07:06 PM

Glad to see you've made it back and your house and family are unscathed.

Looking forward to your next ranting. No about that diesel??

**confus-ed** · May 16th, 2005, 02:32 AM

Originally Posted by Richard1

No about that diesel??

Errr it was this colour so no we won't be saying very much about it at all

**corturbra** · May 16th, 2005, 03:52 AM

Glad to hear you and family are ok. Was only wondering the other day where you'd disappeared to.

Diesel? what diesel?

**amyb** · May 16th, 2005, 05:50 AM

glad you are back and nothing terrible happened to your family.

**shamus** · May 16th, 2005, 08:11 AM

Welcome back...glad nobody got hurt.

**Ya_know** · May 16th, 2005, 08:12 AM

With at least two bars 100 yards away from your house, it's a wonder you have time for the forums at all!

Anyway, No telling how long 350 l of Diesel will burn or how far it would have spread, but my guess is what you did may have saved your house, and the neighborhood. My hat's off to ya...my hero...