January 2 - The story

Good morning,

Yesterday was the first day that I really didn't think, "What do I need to do today? What are my next steps?" Started the day with the preview and the Rose Bowl parade. Enjoyed just looking at all that beauty and hearing all those stories. Starting there, I could feel my body relaxing throughout the day. It feels good.

As I mentioned yesterday, I want to collect as many memories of the events of the last four weeks as I can. These weeks have been so full and are beginning to feel like a blur.

Monday, December 7 (Pearl Harbor day, which Tracy and I think is appropo and kind of funny) at 7:30 PM Bob called to say he would be home from his week long trip to see his daughters in the northwest at about 9 PM. Bob always tells me it will take longer than it actually will because he likes to surprise me. I was thinking he would be home between 8:30 and 8:45. I was watching TV and just waiting for Bob to get home.

When we had electrical work done on the garage, code required that we have smoke detectors installed in the house that were hardwired into the electrical system. The alarm in the TV went off. It took me moment to figure out what it was and to get up to go see what was happening. When I stood up and turned around, I saw black smoke coming into the TV room from what we call the sun room. That was the unfinished room at the back of the house that we were currently using for staging and a little storage. I opened the door to lots of black smoke and flames on the outside wall and starting to catch the blue recliner chair on fire. At first I thought I need water. I went to the kitchen to get water and the telephone and threw the water on the chair and knew immediately this was too big for me to put out bringing water from the kitchen. I called 911 and went outside to attach the hose and fight this fire. I was crying, frightened and just could not believe our beautiful home was on fire.

The hose was hard for me to attach and as hard as I tried I couldn't seem to get it on. So I ran out front yelling 'help me' and knocked on my neighbors door and then ran back to the other side of the house to try again to attach the hose. Adam who lives across the street heard me yelling and came to help. He kept telling to get away from the house, the windows could blow out but I wanted to get the water going. I finally did but when I pointed the hose to the fire, I knew it was too much for one hose. I moved back just as one of the windows exploded. The firemen came up about that time.

Three of them stood there looking and talking about what to do. I was a little stressed out and started to hit one of them on the back and say, 'put water on it.' The guy I was hitting was not amused, the others were more understanding, but I knew I was out of control and moved away. I didn't hit him hard. Sometime in all of that before the firemen got there, I ran back into the sun room and was pulling insulation out trying to minimize the flammable stuff. I was so desperate to stop what was happening.

The neighbors were wonderful, trying to help me, offering to get me whatever I needed. I was dressed in sweats, but had no shoes on. Some neighbor brought me little pink house shoes that were two sizes too small and that were wonderful. I don't remember how cold it was, but that concrete in the street was very cold. The shoes were really important. Later someone brought me a blanket to wrap around myself. I still have it because I have no idea who gave it to me.

I kept asking people what time it was and at 8:30 I called Bob. I asked him where he was and he said in the backyard. He had driven up 15 to 20 minutes before. I felt just awful. I didn't want him to drive up and just see it. I said meet me in the church parking lot and we both ran from where we were to just cling together.

I felt it was my fault. The classic plug in a space heater and burn the house down story on the 11 news. Bob would have none of that. He didn't know what happened but he knew it was not my fault and all he cared about was that I was OK. (as of today, the investigators think it was the plug itself that failed.) What comfort it was to have him with me.

About this time, Lorese came up to us. She has been to a couple of things at the Center and knew it was our house when she saw the flames and came to check on me. She gave me her jacket, again much appreciated. When she got home, she jumped through some hoops to find our website and call all the contact names on it. She reached ky. She said, "Rev Carolyn is standing in the street watching her house burn." ky asked her to repeat and then started calling people. Soon, ky, Rick, Tom, Pat, Kevin, and Vernon were standing in the street with us. Later Gerri was bringing Sue home from the airport and they saw the flames and the trucks and came and stood with us. Oh how grateful I am to Lorese for doing what it took to let others know what was happening. What a comfort it was to be surrounded with friends and love.

It took over three hours to put the flames out.

That's enough for now. I'm going to go have a good cry.