Fire

Yesterday, our kids and all their friends were happily playing at their daycare provider's house.

Today, that house was engulfed in flames. Luckily, there were no kids there (she is closed on Friday afternoons) and our daycare provider managed to get out safely. A fire started in the garage and spread quickly. The garage and 2 bedrooms were destroyed. What used to be her car is now a bunch of ashes. They said the flames reached 30 feet in height.

I just got back from her house. My clothes smell like soot. I can't get the picture of what used to be her house out of my head. You can see right through it now. Where there used to be a garage - there are just ashes attached to beams. It's disturbingly frightening.

She's the safest person I know. Not only does she have smoke detectors - she has *heat* detectors, not to mention carbon monoxide detectors and 20 different "fire plans." She has whistles by every window! This woman is prepared.

And yet, half of her house was destroyed in 30 short minutes.

They don't know what started the fire. It was something in the garage.

I keep thinking, "What if this had happened yesterday..." but I can't go there. Thank god it happened today and no one got hurt. Yesterday, 3 babies would have been sleeping in those bedrooms.

Guess who is going to come up with a family fire plan tomorrow? And buy a smoke detector for the garage? And do all those other fire safety things I've been meaning to do for the last few years?

And our poor daycare provider - she's lost everything. They said she has to get rid of just about everything because of the smoke damage. I know that they are just things, and she's lucky no one got hurt, and insurance will take care of almost everything....but still. That's hard.