Firefighters to the (not so) Rescue

(aka "My Heroes")

911 calls. Have you ever made one?

I have on occasion and it's usually a health related thing for someone else. Always nerve racking, but about someone else none-the-less.

Tonight I made a 911 call for me. Or should I say, for my house.

It was about 20 til 6:00 and I sent my son down stairs to don his football equipment so that I could take him to practice (my husband usually does this but he is out of town tonight). Precious son goes down and is there for a minute or two before he hollers back up "Mom, something smells like it's burning down here." (aside - our house is raised and "downstairs" is where approximately 1/2 of the underneath of our house has been enclosed. It makes for a great laundry and playroom.)

Kind of nonchalantly I hop off the couch and head down. My son's at the bottom of the stairs looking kind of confused. I smell nothing (and I have a very keen nose). As I head downstairs and get to the entrance of the playroom - I SMELL IT. Something is definitely burning.

I start rushing around, smelling nooks and crannies and closets with air handlers and dryer vents and turn up nothing. I envision flames in the wall - send the children outside (both without shoes on) and frantically call 911. The call goes something like this:

911: 911 operator, do you have an emergency?
Me: Yes! I smell something burning in my house and I can't figure out where it is.
911: (muffled) ...fire department... Ma'am, please hold while we connect you to the Fire Department. Please LEAVE your house.

CFD: Fire Department, do you have an emergency?
Me: Yes, I smell something burning in my house and I can't figure out where the smell is coming from.
CFD then verifies the address and tells me they're on the way.

I call my sweet neighbor and say something scary like this: "Nancy, I think my house may be on fire and I've sent my children outside. I've called 911." Or something very close to that.

She comes and on the way tells my children to get on her porch and stay there. Comes and helps me locate the smell (no avail) and then helps me locate my two cats to get them out. The dog is already in the back yard.

I move my car from the garage and back it over the grass into Nancy's driveway. (If the house burns I'll definitely need to be able to drive - and since the garage is under the house - I need to move it.)

Approximately 5 minutes after initial 911 call the firetrucks arrive. EIGHT of them.
-8-.
Yes, Eight!
And two chief cars.

I explain things, they rush in to the playroom - oxygen tanks on their backs - pick axe/crowbar tools in hand - and try to locate the cause of the smell. There's no smoke. Just a putrid smell. They look in all of the places I've looked. They go upstairs and determine no odor. No smoke. They check the breaker box. I feel like they are mere seconds away from chopping into my ceiling or walls because of the way they all begin wielding their pick axe/crowbar tools.

Then one sends another out to get the "Thermo" something. Meter maybe? I don't know - I'm just growing more panicked that these nice men can't figure it out either.

After several Thermo readings and what felt like an eternity (but was probably only 15 more minutes) they come out of my house carrying a black box with wires coming off each end. I'm told that it is a "ballast box" for one of my florescent light fixtures (I have 5 down there). This is basically just the black electric box from the innards of one of them. (It was kind of odd seeing "the black box" coming out of the house. Thought those were for airplanes). Their Thermo Meter registered the box at 219 degrees. And the electricity had been turned off on it since before they arrived. Turning off the lights is one of the first things I did, luckily.

So, a scary amount of time and a black box later - my house has been given the all clear. A truck or two leaves. And at this point the large crowd of neighbors (many of which I've never met before) begin leaving too. The immediate neighbors (other than Nancy who's already here keeping me calm) come to make sure all is well and see if they can do anything. Nancy has tried to leave previously to take my sweet boy to football practice but the street is so full of firetrucks there's no passage out. We decided to call off practice and order in pizza.

Funny things about this event: 1) across the street neighbor sees some CFD trucks leaving the neighborhood as she arrives from work. Drives all around neighborhood to see where the fire was. Comes down our street last (we're actually at the beginning of the neighborhood and she has been deep in looking) and sees trucks in front of her house and thinks it's hers.
2) Another neighbor (who happens to work with Bryan) calls to see what all the commotion was about on our cul-de-sac. Was shocked to hear it was our house. Pretty funny!

My chest is only just now not so tight anymore. Thank you, Lord, for keeping everything safe tonight!