I spoke too soon...

So my house almost burned down just now. Well, kind of. It could have anyway. Around 9:40 we hear someone knocking on our door. We look around confusedly and I pick up my cell phone just in case we have to call 911. My dad opens the door to some stranger dressed in a target uniform.

"Your tree's on fire!" the man informs us.

"Thanks!" my dad says as he runs out back. The back of our house faces a busy street and gigantic pine trees in enclaves off of the street hang over our backyard and touch our house.

We all follow my dad to the backyard where he hurriedly connects the hose and shouts for the nozzle and a chair. He yells to have someone call 911, which my sister does. Apparently someone had decided to throw their cigarette out the window as they were driving by, and it hit the pile of pine needles and debris at the base of the tree, which then caught fire. There are some other nice people out back beating at the flames trying to put them out. We thank them, and my dad jumps up on a chair and sprays the hose down into the flames.

My family all grabs chairs and peers over the wall to watch my dad at work. After a minute or so of water, the flames subside and the fire truck shows up.

"Thanks for doing out job!" they say. The firefighters dig around the tree to make sure that no more embers are concealed. After they pronounce it safe, my dad turns off the hose, and they leave.

Whew. A close call and an exciting night

A few things:

First: Thanks to bystanders who call 911, help out, and inform others.

Second: Thanks to the wonderful men and women who serve our community as firefighters and put their lives on the line for others.

Third: I have an amazing dad who doesn't loose his calm and knows what to do in the face of an emergency.

Fourth: We were really blessed- if it had been windy so flames spread faster, daytime so you couldn't see them, or later at night with no one driving by, our house could definitely have caught fire.

Fifth: Please don't throw cigarettes out the window. Put them out and dispose of them properly.

Sixth: Don't blog about how everything's good in your neighborhood, because you never know what might happen next.