Once the door was ajar, the smell of campfire hit my nose and stayed with me as I continued on to the bathroom. I relieved myself, peaked my head into the laundry room to make sure the dryer wasn't up in flames, and then stumbled back into the bedroom. I laid down and pulled out my phone and saw that it was 1:15 in the a.m.. I pulled up Facebook to see if the news stations that I follow had posted anything about a fire burning in Bountiful. I pictured Pyramid Peak behind our house up in flames and I was ready to act. Facebook didn't tell me anything, so I rolled over and nudged Andrew.
"Hey. Andrew. Wake up- I smell smoke in our house and I'm not sure where it is coming from," I whispered.
He immediately jumped out of bed and we made our venture throughout the house. The smell in the basement was strong, but as we ascended upstairs to the main floor, the smell got stronger. Andrew went to the backdoor and peaked his head outside. He turned his head back with a look of worry in his eyes and said, "It smells clean outside. It's coming from in here."
We both took off running upstairs as the smell got stronger and then the addition of smoke started to appear. Our office was full of smoke. The hallway was full of smoke. The lights in the bathroom and Craig's room weren't working. I walked down to my mom's room and the whole room was filled with this white, whispy smoke. I turned to Andrew in a panic not knowing what to do. I trembled as I handed him my phone and told him to call 911. I ran around trying to find a fire extinguisher and feeling like my eyes couldn't focus on anything around me.
911 told us to get everyone out of the house and that firetrucks would be there shortly. I ran downstairs and let the dogs out the back and then continued on to our bedroom in the basement to throw on some clothes. What do I take with me? Do I bring extra clothes? Do I grab our important paperwork? Do I get Andy's gun? (Not sure why this one entered my mind! Must have something to do with being woken up in a panic in the middle of the night!)
I went and waited for the firetruck at the end of our driveway. Two firemen hopped out and went right inside. I grabbed the dogs and put them in the garage since they would've woken up the whole neighborhood and then headed outside again. As I walked out, the first firemen walked in and said that he smelled paper and instructed the other one to get the "Tick". They both ran inside while I waited outside not knowing what was going on behind our brick walls.
Two more firetrucks pulled up, along with two paramedics, and three cops. I took command of the watch patrol and ran to the different neighbors as I saw them come out to see what was going on. I let them first know that everyone was okay and that I didn't know what was going on.
Andy came out and told me that they found some of the wire casing in the attic melting through the bathroom fan and that there was a fire in the attic. He went back in around the same time that more firemen walked in with a couple long poles in order to pull the ceiling down.
I called my mom who was staying with my Grandad, who has been ill, and let her know that her attic was on fire and that I didn't know much of what was going on. I told her I would call her back once I knew more information.
Time passed and my mom pulled up rushing to find out what was going on in her house! At that point, the firemen were just tearing down the ceiling, throwing it on the ground, and putting out the smoke/flames with water... right there in our hallway! :) Eventually they brought everything down (3 HUGE tarp fulls- FULL of insulation, ceiling, and whatever else was in the attic!
Every firemen that we spoke to said that if we had not woken up for another hour or so, our whole house would've been on fire. This freaks me out so bad thinking about how we couldn't smell anything in our room and who knows what might have happened to us! The firemen told us that they wanted someone to stay at the house and check on the attic every hour to make sure it didn't start burning more. So Andy and I went downstairs again because you couldn't smell a thing in our room, turned on Couples Retreat, and stayed up until about 5:00 in the morning with frequent breaks to check on the attic!
I am so grateful for my little guy for waking me up! I KNOW that it wasn't by chance. Just how everything fell into place, I know that God was watching out for us and used our little man as an instrument to wake us up! It's the only thing that makes sense!
Our house is now patched up and the smell is mostly gone (it's been about 2 weeks now), and we will start moving our stuff upstairs to be close to the nursery! I am so grateful for this baby that is coming to join us!!
Here are some pics of the fire and the firemen:
Every firemen that we spoke to said that if we had not woken up for another hour or so, our whole house would've been on fire. This freaks me out so bad thinking about how we couldn't smell anything in our room and who knows what might have happened to us! The firemen told us that they wanted someone to stay at the house and check on the attic every hour to make sure it didn't start burning more. So Andy and I went downstairs again because you couldn't smell a thing in our room, turned on Couples Retreat, and stayed up until about 5:00 in the morning with frequent breaks to check on the attic!
I am so grateful for my little guy for waking me up! I KNOW that it wasn't by chance. Just how everything fell into place, I know that God was watching out for us and used our little man as an instrument to wake us up! It's the only thing that makes sense!
Our house is now patched up and the smell is mostly gone (it's been about 2 weeks now), and we will start moving our stuff upstairs to be close to the nursery! I am so grateful for this baby that is coming to join us!!
Here are some pics of the fire and the firemen:
