Lightening Crashes...

It is unofficially fire prevention week in our household.

Yesterday evening we had a very bad thunderstorm. Ben and Brayden were out picking up dinner and I was on the computer while Cami was napping. All of a sudden, there was a huge boom and the fire alarms started going off. Cami freaked and I went a grabbed her to calm her down. The fire alarms stopped finally and I saw Ben pull up the street. It was pouring rain so I went outside to help Ben bring Brayden in.

My neighbor was outside with her little boy and she called over to me that their house was on FIRE! I grabbed Brayden and sent Ben to grab her little man so he could come over to safety. Apparently the lightening struck the ground near their house and went into the basement through the gas line and ignited in the hot water heater. Her basement was on fire and her husband was able to put it out with a fire extinguisher before the firemen arrived. They were lucky to be home when this happened and thank god my neighbor listened to the voice in her head that told her to look in the basement after the big boom. It was and is a really scary situation.

Ben went out this morning and bought another fire extinguisher for our house and a fire alarm for the basement. Apparently this isn't the first time that this type of fire has occurred in our neighborhood. Another house caught on fire from a lightening strike that went into the house through the gas hook up. So now I am freaked. Fire is a scary thing and I want to feel safe in our house. We are looking into having our house monitored for fire through our security system. We really do need to invest in some fire escape ladders and start taking fire more seriously.

On a lighter note, the boys just thought that all the fire trucks that came to the scene were the coolest thing. They were awe struck looking out the window. Wish I had pics but didn't really think to grab the camera.

So moral of the story...go out a buy a fire extinguisher for every floor and some fire alarms for floors that don't have them usually, like the basement.