The Most Exciting Moment of the Day...

...occurred this evening when Josiah was looking out the front window and noticed smoke--heavy smoke--everywhere outside. It was so thick that it looked like fog, but he knew that fog couldn't just come out of nowhere like that. He alerted the rest of us, and we all came quickly into the living room to see what was going on. Since we have a woodstove and use it constantly in the winter, the thought of a chimney fire (or to be honest, a house fire) is always in the back of our heads; and we were quite concerned that the smoke might be coming from that. It didn't take long though for us to realize that it was actually coming from our neighbors' house, and Jeff took off across the yard (in freezing temperatures with no coat) to find out what was going on and warn the Shanks if they weren't aware of the awful smoke coming from their chimney.

Before he had quite gotten to their house, Wilma and one of the girls, I think, had come outside and were looking up at the chimney, so they did know about it. I never really got the story straight about what exactly happened in their chimney--something about leaves which flew up the chimney and ignited at the top--I don't know. The thick, smelly smoke didn't last so long; but Douglas was concerned enough to call the fire department to come and check things out.

I don't know how fire departments and rescue squads work in different parts of the country, but here it is totally free to use them and they provide a GREAT service for us. My sister and oldest brother volunteered with the local rescue squad when they were teenagers (and maybe in their early 20s, too?), and I just thought that was the coolest thing. :) I was convinced that when I got old enough, I too would volunteer with the squad and get to have a neat-o scanner that would be by my bed and I would hear the various calls go out and I would respond and help someone in need and the next day I would have a great story to tell of my rescue adventures. Alas, that day never came. By the time I hit high school, I had let myself get way too busy to help with the squad so that little dream of mine died a slow death. In any case, to this day, I have a great deal of admiration for the rescue personnel in our community!

After Douglas called the fire department, it didn't take them long at all to come out with men and gear and trucks and ladders, and they were eventually able to get high enough to look down in the chimney and see what had happened and test for the structural integrity and safety of the chimney. As it turns out, all is well; and the Shanks can still use their chimney which is a wonderful blessing. But as I built up the fire in our own faithful woodstove tonight, I was reminded of the incredible power that fire possesses: power to sustain life, and power to destroy it.
This was the view that greeted the guests in our home this evening as they arrived for our Friday Fellowship Potluck (and all those pick-up trucks parked along the drive are from off-duty firefighters who heard the call and came to help, some arriving even before the firetrucks did). Here in the peaceful countryside, we don't often see a firetruck with lights blazing in our neighbor's driveway...but don't think for a minute that nothing ever happens here on Sylvan Drive. The simple life is anything but boring! :)