Posted by mojohand on Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Boy, I sure look forward to Tuesdays. That's the day I get the afternoon off. Wife and kids are gone, so its just me and the banjo. Well on this particular day, I had some things to finish up at work and lingered a little longer than I normally do. By the time I pulled into my street, I saw smoke rising up. "That looks pretty close to the house", I said to myself. As I got closer, my blood started to rise. Just behind my house there is a vacant field and it was on fire! I pulled into the driveway, jumped out of the truck and ran to the back. as I peeked over the fence (made of well seasoned kindling), I saw the fire about 20 feet away being driven toward me by a brisk wind. I yeklled to a neighbor who said the fire dep had been called, so I ran to grab a hose. It was too short to reach the back fence, so I had to connect 3 hoses together. I didn't have a nozzle for the end, so I just stuck my thumb over the end at pointed it at the oncoming inferno. I battled it for about 15 min until the fire fighters came. I was able it about 2 feet from my fence line. Once I saw that the professionals had arrived and my fence seemed to be out of immediate danger, I turned my attention to my neighbor's fence and helped him. He wasn't as lucky as I, as his fence was completely on fire. It had started to burn the bark ground cover he had. It would smolder and seemed to be spreading under the bark. It was now approaching the side fence we shared and I commenced to putting that part out, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw the side fence on the other side was on fire and it had jumperd into my yard and my bark ground cover was on fire. I ran like a jack rabbit toward it, but of course my hose got caught up on a tree. I freed the hose and went into the fight. Every time it seemed like the fire was out, a puff of wind would come along and ignite the whole thing over again. All in all, I made out very lucky. Only a small portion of my fence was burned. A neighbor behind me lost his whole barn and a couple of cars. And wouldn't you know it, it was all started by some kids smoking cigarettes. when my girls came home, the wife and I showed them what such carelessness/foolishness can cause.
The good news...I was still able to pick a bit later and work on my rendition of Groundhog!
2 comments on “Man tries to play banjo, fights fire instead”
Joanchek Says:
Wednesday, May 23, 2007 @6:20:42 PM
Glad nobody was hurt, Randy. (I am assuming that there was no stock in the barn, just cars...) Scary stuff, fire.
stanger Says:
Wednesday, May 23, 2007 @9:24:15 PM
Wow! What an exciting afternoon! I'm glad your losses were minor, Randy, and you were very smart for going right after it. Folks who sit and wait for the fire dept. often lose everything in situations like this. You're a natural-born fire hater!
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