Mrs. O'Leary

On Thursday morning I was singing the song about Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicking over the lantern in the shed and starting the Chicago fire. My singing was inspired by a fire in our neighborhood on Monday night. Just two houses down, a paper shredder malfunctioned (the fire captain believes), caught fire, and totalled the dining room. The house is uninhabitable due to serious smoke and water damage.



On Thursday evening Pop, Jesse and I went to BWI to pick up Aunt Beth who has come for the weekend to teach a teachers' training seminar at church. Thomas and Amy had gone out to run an errand. We left Stephen home, along with Elisabeth, her friend, Jordan, and William. Elisabeth was upstairs doing homework. Stephen was on the computer in the study. Jordan was on her way upstairs to study with Elisabeth and William was at the foot of the steps. Will looked up, saw flames through the ceiling vent into the attic, and said "Fire". Jordan looked up and saw the flames, too. "Fire," she yelled. Stephen ran out of the study. "I'll call 911," said Jordan, as she ran up the steps to get Elisabeth. Elisabeth reacted hysterically as she and Jordan saw smoke pouring out of the ceiling vents in the master bedroom.

Jordan quickly got on the phone to the dispatcher and told her there was a fire in the house and five kids with no adults. The dispatcher asked how she knew there was a fire and Jordan suspected the dispatcher didn't believe her word. (Perhaps she knew of the recent fire in our neighborhood and thought the call was a prank.) When Jordan said she could see the flames herself and was willing to give her name the dispatcher quickly assured her the police and fire engines would be here soon and told her to get everyone out of the house. The children grabbed the cat, my computer, a Bible (and the Gilgamesh book that was close by). William grabbed his pillow and a video game. Within 5 minutes a police officer arrived. There was no panic about the discrepency about the number of children; Jordan didn't realize Jesse had gone with us, but the others knew that. Soon after, the fire crew arrived. They dragged a hose into the house and up the stairs, but as they opened the panel into the attic the fire extinquished itself and they didn't need to spray a drop of water. Thomas and Amy arrived about 10 minutes after the police officer and immediately called me.

Aunt Beth's plane had been briefly delayed in South Carolina and again in Baltimore where there wasn't an available ground crew to get the plane to the gate. We sat in the cell phone lot for about 10 minutes until she called to tell us she was in the terminal. We were driving to pick her up when Thomas called and said the fire trucks were in our neighborhood again--this time at our house. We hurriedly got Aunt Beth, and sped home. The fire engines were still out front, waiting until the captain could determine the cause of the fire. His report was that the fire was contained to insulation around our air conditioning ductwork. The insulation is designed to burn very slowly--and it did what it was designed to do. The children had seen flames in the insulation and the flames were easily extinguished. The remnants of the fire were a charred air filter, a large handful of singed insulation, the smell of electrical smoke in the second floor, and no central air conditioning. The cause of the fire is probably a short in an electrical wire--perhaps the one to Elisabeth's overhead light fixture, but it might also be something with the air conditioner. Two electricians have already looked at it, and we need to get an ac guy up there before we decide what needs to be done.

What a Providence that the children saw the flames, had the presence of mind to call and convince the dispatcher of a true emergency, got out of the house safely, and that there was no greater damage or inconvenience. But, I should be prepared to say the same if the fire had occurred during the night, leaving us homeless, with loss of life. God's sovereign hand controls all these events and blesses and instructs us through them. We are truly thankful.