January 18, 2019 - News Post

At 2am on Thursday, I awoke to the smell of smoke.

I checked the outlets. Nothing.

I checked the kitchen. Nothing.

I also checked my email. It wasn’t like it was an emergency or anything.

All throughout the house, no sign of fire.

I went outside. Yes, in my underwear (why do you always ask that?). I walked a few houses down and found the that smell faded. I tried the other direction, too. The mesquite BBQ smell was definitely strongest by us.

I went back inside and checked the house again. No sign of fire. After a half hour of walking inside and out, I got used to the odor. I wanted to go to bed, but my wife (who is smarter than me) insisted that we stay up until we find the source. I reluctantly agreed.

I put clothes on and went outdoors with a bit more determination. By this point, I was reasonably sure that the smell was coming from outside the house, and I wanted to find it.

When I went outside, I heard a voice. “Do you smell smoke?” It was my cool neighbor who doesn’t think I’m cool.

“Yes, I totally smell smoke!” I said in a way that would totally make me sound cool.

Hearing someone ask about smoke at 2:30 in the morning would typically be worrisome. But at that point, I was happy to have someone else to join me in the search.

The two of us looked behind our houses and began to wander up and down the street.

As a quick aside, I don’t really live in a house. I rent some sort of converted condo/time share bungalow that resembles a small house. There are about 10 of these things down a walking path in the middle of an apartment complex. With a giant hill behind us, the places are really pretty... but entirely made of wood. Nothing would last more than a few minutes if one were to catch fire. Needless to say, it was very important to find the source of the smoke.

“I’m going back inside.” Cool neighbor guy said. He sounded extremely cool when he did, too.

“Have a good night.” I said in an equally cool way.

What followed was another 20 minutes of me searching, so I’m going to skip ahead a little...

“Call the fire department!!!” I shouted to my wife.

Embers were floating into the sky behind our house. At the top of the hill, several bushes were burning. It went from one or two sparks to a burning tree in less than a minute.

We ran inside, grabbing important documents, a laptop, and my newly purchased back up hard drive. There was something else we recued. What was it? Oh right, the dogs. We got them out too.

My wife called the fire department and explained that the fire was behind our house at a specific address. Instead of driving to the top of the hill, they instead insisted on driving to us.

While we waited, cool neighbor guy woke everyone up on the street by knocking on their doors. I used a garden hose to spray the houses I could reach while embers landed on our walls and roofs. All in all, it was a well-organized 3am evacuation.

We waited about 15 minutes for the firefighters and their sirens to arrive. By that time, several trees were burning and closer than ever to our houses. It didn’t take long for them to look at the fire and assess the situation.

“We can’t get it from here. We’ll have to go up to the top of the hill behind you. You should’ve given us that address.”

They had to back the truck out, which took an excruciating amount of time. Embers flew through the air like a mini volcano. Thankfully, they didn’t seem too worried. If anything, they seemed a bit unimpressed with the fire.

A few minutes later, we heard their sirens once again. This time from the right place.

It took seconds for the professional firefighters to put the fire out... like it was no big deal. To put our minds at ease, they kept spraying the mini forest fire for quite some time. They were very thorough.

It was nice to bond the neighbors, exciting to have a story to tell, and it helped me realize the essentails in my life. But I'm not going to lie, it got scary for a bit there.  

For one brief moment, in the middle of the night, I almost didn't look cool. I shudder to think of those consequences. 

-Jeff