I was just leaving to make a hospital visit when I looked out of my house and saw smoke pouring out of the windows of a warehouse that is just across the street. I called 911, and as I called could hear the first fire engines arriving. The building was the old PX for Hamilton, and apparently lots of paint and other toxic and flammable things were stored there.
The firefighters did a great job. At one point, however, the flames were so very high that I suddenly thought "I need an evacuation plan." So I got my keys, and Molly Brown's leash, and an idea to go round up my 93 year old neighbor Lyndell. I did not have to go, but I did go outside and watch with all the neighbors, who asked if I had prayed. I urged them all to pray!
Even that short moment of consciousness...I may need to get out of here...was enough to make me really thinking about how precious and sacred and fleeting life is. I was grateful to be around my neighbors, and grateful for the firefighters who arrived and stayed all night and protected us.
1 comment:
Whoa, that's too close for comfort. Glad the fire fighters got there as fast as they did and that no one was hurt.
Takes me back to 1990, three weeks before I moved to seminary, three months before I defended my Ph.D., and the store two buildings over burned down. I woke up in the middle of the night (around 2.30), my apartment full of smoke and thought of what I would need if I had to evacuate: my two cats, and the floppy disk (just one!) of my dissertation.
These days? Rounding up four cats would take up every second of time but if I took my OWC 180G external hard drive, I'd be pretty well backed up for all my files. Even has all my music.
Food for thought, indeed.
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