Evacuation from Our Home
Late night Wednesday, right after I'd posted my latest blog - S is for Smith (my favorite poets from A to Z - volume 19) - smoke began filling our house and we began to hear lots of sirens. WTF?!? Was our house on fire? Smelled a bit like burning plastic....
But it wasn't us or our neighbors. And I could barely see the Convenient store across the street from us for the dense smoky fog. Then suddenly it became clear... the former General Industries building about a block away, straight in front of our house, suddenly turned into a bit of a towering inferno. Despite the constant rain, burning embers filled the air above our house. We heard what sounded like propane tanks exploding, and it was getting hard to breathe inside the house.
So we packed into the car and headed for Mom's house. I knew she'd be frightened by a 2:30 a.m. phone call, but it was either that or sneak into her house unexpected and perhaps scare her more.
We ended up sleeping in her basement. When I returned to our house around 8 a.m., we had no electricity, the house was still filled with smoke, blocks around the factory were sealed off, fire departments from 3 counties were still trying to get the fire under control, and all the major Cleveland TV news vans were camped out in the Convenient parking lot.
If not for the pouring rain, things could have been much worse (and I would have gotten better pictures) - in fact, the remains are still smoking as I write Friday morning. I wanted to video it as soon as it happened, but Geri would not let me go any closer than we already were.
Thankfully, it appears no one was seriously injured. And all the residents are back in their homes.
Here's a video our local newspaper, the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, posted on You Tube:
But it wasn't us or our neighbors. And I could barely see the Convenient store across the street from us for the dense smoky fog. Then suddenly it became clear... the former General Industries building about a block away, straight in front of our house, suddenly turned into a bit of a towering inferno. Despite the constant rain, burning embers filled the air above our house. We heard what sounded like propane tanks exploding, and it was getting hard to breathe inside the house.
So we packed into the car and headed for Mom's house. I knew she'd be frightened by a 2:30 a.m. phone call, but it was either that or sneak into her house unexpected and perhaps scare her more.
We ended up sleeping in her basement. When I returned to our house around 8 a.m., we had no electricity, the house was still filled with smoke, blocks around the factory were sealed off, fire departments from 3 counties were still trying to get the fire under control, and all the major Cleveland TV news vans were camped out in the Convenient parking lot.
If not for the pouring rain, things could have been much worse (and I would have gotten better pictures) - in fact, the remains are still smoking as I write Friday morning. I wanted to video it as soon as it happened, but Geri would not let me go any closer than we already were.
Thankfully, it appears no one was seriously injured. And all the residents are back in their homes.
Here's a video our local newspaper, the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, posted on You Tube:
The video is well done by the way. So glad you are fine. There was once a fire next door to me that caused my smoke alarms to go off continually. Not to long ago my neighbor's home across the street burned down. Fire scares the hell out of me. I am glad you and yours are ok.
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I'm glad everyone is OK!!
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Holy Cow!! You didn't have to go too far for blog material this time John. Just right out your own front door.... but how scary.
You have become a roving reporter.. video camera in hand. and everything... geez.
I remember experiencing a fire much like that when I think I was about 11 or 12 years old. Our family lived in an area near a light industrial park at the time and there was a fire at a large lumber yard less than a 1/4 mile away.... just across the railroad tracks from our home. It was quite the fire.. we thought the whole neighborhood would go up in flames! I can stil see the images clearly in my mind even today...
So feel for you all. How did the little ones handle it all?
Glad to hear everyone is safe and sound though...
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I'm so glad you guys left the house when that happened. I imagine plastic fumes are pretty toxic.
What a wild whirled.
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I'm glad you guys got out - I think plastic fumes are pretty carcinogenic.
what a wild whirled.
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Well. I've tried to post this comment twice.. I hope this posts and isn't a repeat. If so sorry.
Holy Cow!! You didn't have to go too far for blog material this time John. Just right out your own front door.... but how scary.
You have become a roving reporter.. video camera in hand. and everything... geez.
I remember experiencing a fire much like that when I think I was about 11 or 12 years old. Our family lived in an area near a light industrial park at the time and there was a fire at a large lumber yard less than a 1/4 mile away.... just across the railroad tracks from our home. It was quite the fire.. we thought the whole neighborhood would go up in flames! I can stil see the images clearly in my mind even today...
So feel for you all. How did the little ones handle it all?
Glad to hear everyone is safe and sound though...
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I'm so relieved that no one got hurt and you and Gerry made it out with your lungs still intact!
Hugs to You Both,
Suze
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very scary.
i peeked at your local paper yesterday and found this article http://www.chroniclet.com/2008/07/03/breaking-news-fire-destroys-former-general-industries-building/
interesting that where the recent fire started is the same place where one was put out last thursday.
i haven't looked at todays paper. wonder if they're considering arson?
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Wow, thanks for finding and posting the article mb...
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I guess you've had enough fireworks to last for a lifetime. This was really too close for comfort. I hope you got everything cleaned up from smoke damage.
I had a fire here and it was just before classes began at LCCC and the day after the whole upstairs had to be cleaned and repainted and papered my husband had a heart attack and ended up in the hospital. That probably was the worst thing that ever happened in this house. It makes a minor flood of the yard like we had the other day nothing in comparison. Have a happy and safe 4th and don't get sparklers for the kids. I read that 400 kids of age 5 and under were burned by these lovely little hot crazy things last year. They are dangerous. Now that Smith is home with Lady I hope there is some way to meet them before they return to Oaxaca. Let me know and we possibly could get together. Stay in touch please.
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ah, i answered most of my own questions by looking at today's paper, where just about every headline is on the fire.
http://www.chroniclet.com/
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Wow...I'm so glad everybody was ok! Thank God its just a little smoke damage, and not a loss of life! By the way the quality of your video was great.
Do you know what caused it?
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I am glad you and the family were/are alright. Will the owner of the property be held liable (or willingly pay) for the smoke damage that I'm certain was caused to so many of the neighboring residents' homes? You're in my thoughts and prayers.
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Glad that you and yours are safe....and that your home is intact!!
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Glad to hear you are all okay. Scary!
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That was quite a fire. I would say that it definitely qualifies as an inferno. It goes without saying that I am very glad that you and your family are safe and that you did not lose your home. That's a very wise wife you have for not letting you get closer to get better pictures. I laughed out loud when I read that, because that's the exact same argument my husband and I would be having under those circustances. It's so important to have a healthy respect for fire. It's incredibly unpredictable and a small fire can get out of control faster than I think anyone who hasn't seen it with their own two eyes can imagine. I'm glad that everyone is safe and I hope that families were not too badly effeced by smoke damage. As you know, i had a home burn down and we tried to save the sentimental items. We were very lucky that most of our photos survived, but all of our cherished christmas ornaments, china, etc, were covered in soot. When we tried to clean them off, the paint came off with the soot. I tried to save my wedding gown, but the smoke damage was too severe. I don't think people realise how much can be lost in a fire. Of course there is nothing worse than loss of life. But there are many things that we take forgranted that we realise were cherished objects until they cannot be saved. When a home burns down, you literally lose everything. When ours burned we were very much in shock, because there were injuries. It took us weeks to realise all of the personal items that we had lost. We went back to the house, our childhood home, to recover whatever memories we could. I found two pictures from my paents wedding. They had a beautiful album with all the family in it. Gone. One day my brother, who always dresses very fashionably was wearing sweatpants. I chalked it up to depression. I said, "Mark, wouldn't you feel better if you got out of those sweatpants?" He said, "These are the clothes that my co-workers bought for me. All of my clothes are gone. My bed, cd collecton, stereo, tv, extensive collection of movie memorabelia, all of it is gone. I have nothing. It was very emotional. We literally had to start over from scratch.
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you sure it wasn't a david byrne talking heads special performance of "burning down the house"?
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hee hee!
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Excellent comments hee hee ho ho hor hor horible..
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ho ho hor hor horible.
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My dog is sick (((
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