explosions and flames start our day

The Old Salt and I were awakened in the wee hours this morning to what sounded like the July 4th fireworks display that is held in the city park near our house each year. Our house was aglow with a bright orange light that was certainly surreal for that time of the morning. It only took a few minutes of investigation for the Old Salt to come back into the bedroom insisting that I get up and get dressed.

It turned out the fireworks were shotgun shells exploding and the orange glow was our neighbors house going up in flames from an early morning house fire. I am not sure who took

the following video which has already found it's way to U-Tube, but, it shows you exactly what we saw from our front door at 3:30 this morning.

Our good friend and neighbor became a real hero and local celebrity early this morning. Bob lives in the house next door to the house that burned (we live directly across the street) and was awakened by the sound of fireworks and could see the flames from his bedroom window. He quickly grabbed his shoes and wearing nothing but his pajama bottoms ran next door. Pounding on the door and yelling until someone answered. He then was able to awaken all the residents of the house and carried the children out of the house to the safety of his living room. Bob's wife contacted our volunteer fire department while Bob hooked up his garden hose. Realizing the house was past saving with the small amount of water his hose put out Bob took his garden hose and began wetting down the vehicles and other items in the area that the fire could spread too, including his own house. Bob can be seen with his hose in the above video.

Thanks to Bob the young family that lived in this house are safe, but, they lost everything they owned in the blaze including one of their beloved dogs. If like me you are a believer in the power of prayer then please say a few for this family. They certainly can use all the help that can be found at this time.

Now here are a few of the photos that I took during the course of this very emotional day.

This next photo is of the damage done by the heat of the fire to the end of Bob's house.