Fire at the door....

Song of the...who gives a bloody heck, I’ve got something to share so we’re going to completely circumvent the normal stuff and drop right in. Considering I’ve been sick for two days, there’s nothing else to tell anyway.

Seriously, you won’t believe it, but we, as a family, had an extremely close call. I’m not exaggerating either, our mountain peak, right on top of our property caught fire (fire department is investigating) and…well, I better start at the beginning.

After spending the majority of the day in the yard, I had gone up to my cabin for a much needed nap (am sick, remember?). I had been sleeping for about thirty minutes when the dogs started barking, so I went to the bathroom, glancing outside to see grandpa rush up the mountain carrying something black and red under his arm.
I didn’t think much of it either, and stumbled back to bed in hopes of catching a couple more zzzzs. I’d just crawled back under the blankets when my phone rang. I grappled for the darn thing, first grabbed the wrong one (the house phone) and then picked up to hear grandpa snap. “Get up here, we’ve got a fire.”
Rolling out of bed, I was just in time to see big brother stick his head into my cabin, snapping, “Come on. Fire! Let’s go.”
“Yeah, yeah,” was my response as I stumbled out of the bedroom, slipped my feet into sneakers--debated putting on my boots, but decided it would take too much time--and rushed up to grandpa’s cabin where I wetted a towel and rushed out the small gate. I immediately saw that that towel wasn’t going to do much and dropped it where I stood.
As far as the eye could see, following the path of our drive sweep, fire literally blazed. The wind came from the east (lucky for us) and was sweeping it from one dry bush to the next as if it was kindle. There was a big fig tree off to the left of the sweep and it did woosh.
Armed with fire extinguishers grandpa and I tackled the bushes over the storage, big brother started attacking the hearth under our upper terrace, while little brother and sister ran down to the pool to get buckets of water.
Grandpa put out one of the eucalyptus trees, and I went into the bushes to use this nifty little extinguisher that we bought about half a year ago. Boy does that stuff work nicely. So only three bursts, but it was beautiful, the white powder worked like a charm and put it all out, stopping the fire from going down to the storage.
Cops had arrived by then, and they were talking into walkie talkies, while we were running back and forth.
Grandpa continued on with the buckets little brother was hauling, and I went down with the second small extinguisher to help big brother at the lower section.
Standing at the edge of our property, I could feel the heat of the fire, pulsing upwards and those waist high thorny bushes were so dry, I feared that they were going go poof in the heat. Luckily big brother managed to wet those closest to us well enough to keep it all away, but still, using buckets, I kept throwing water on the smoldering sections that were close to our storage. We heard a siren then, coming from below, making clear that the fire department once again didn’t know where to go.
Five buckets later, two more squad cars at the top of the road, and the first fire truck arrived. What with big brother still hosing the bushes, the rest of us stopped to watch the firemen roll out the hoses and come down the incline.
Our neighbor (he’d seen the fire start early and called the fire department) arrived then as well, joining us on the edge to peer at the ongoing battle.
Figuring that just in case big brother couldn’t stop the flames, it would be smart to take of the lower growth of the eucalypti on the edge, I took the axe and started chopping them away, so little brother and sister could haul them off.
Then came the helicopters (pictures will be posted underneath). First one circled several times and then came down, sanding us all properly as it landed right beside our property. Massive chopper and about ten men came out wearing full gear. While the lot went down, the chopper left again, throwing out the back, which would have to be filled at a nearby basin. Within minutes one of the new arrivals was brought back up, he’d twisted his ankle rather badly while climbing down, so he had to be brought to the hospital.
By then we were only window dressing and just stood there as another chopper arrived with another load of firemen, along with a Guardia Civil (which are a scary lot, I tell ya) on a motorcycle. This fella immediately started asking how it had happened and if we had been working there with heavy equipment, or if we’d been barbequing, or anything like that…no, no and no, all counts. First of all, grandpa and big brother were using the angle grinder within the confines of the wall, right in front of grandpa’s cabin, and when big brother was out there getting tiles, the fire wasn’t there. And that was fifteen minutes earlier, twenty at most. Boy did that fire go fast. *shivers*
It took the firemen about an hour to get the fire under control, and another to fully extinguish it, but, jeez, that was an eventful evening for sure.
But anyway, the cop guy looked like he was going to bring out the knuckle buster and the black hose, if the fire experts hadn’t arrived that is. So they were looking around all suspicious like (felt like I was part of CSI, or something. Strange how someone can make you feel guilty about something you had nothing to do with) and one came down to ask us for information. Luckily Dani was there for the day, because her Spanish is at least sufficient for this kind of thing.
We were walking up the incline where the fire was basically over and done with, looking at the firemen hosing the mountain off, and watching the fire experts examine the ground beside the road.
This one fellow, he was a nice one, pointed out two pieces of rope that could very well have been used to light things up. Which would mean that there was an arsonist at play, which is an incredibly scary thought. Jeez! How they’re going to do it, I don’t know, but I do hope that they’ll catch this one. We could have lost the friggin’ house!
But anyway, we had to give our statements, which were a mess, and I was constantly coughing my lungs out (sick, remember? Hah) and going back and forth, asking middle sister to go and check on tenant who was still down by the basin where we had left her.
Turned out that the all the noise going on had worried her so much that she’d gathered up her cane and came walking up all by herself. *applause for tenant* This is the first time she did it all on her own, and proud she was.
She sat up there with mom and the younger sibs for the remainder of the afternoon while chopper after chopper swooped overhead to extinguish the final flames, before landing once more (sending up a sandstorm that went everywhere. I’m completely sandy, yikes) and picking up their respective group of firemen.
Once again the fire experts came down and they wished to talk to mom separately for a moment. Turns out there is a rumor going around locally where folks think that grandpa is not entirely well in the head. OMG. Bunch of idiots. Just because he gets pissed off about speeding cars while he’s walking his dogs, and because he can’t speak a word of Spanish, someone spread a horrible rumor about him being nuts. And making it worse by adding that he goes around setting fires.
So these fire experts asked their questions, referring that there might be insurance involved, but since we don’t have fire insurance (I know, dangerous, have you any idea how expensive that is ‘round these parts?) that idea was taken from their heads pretty fast.
I still have sand in my ears and teeth, by the way.
Grandpa?! *flips them the mental bird* Seriously, the old sod would give his life before risking family like that.
Luckily they were more than happy to dismiss that theory, and even went as for as to apologize for having to check, and saying that we should not say anything about it to grandpa because it was just a rumor. *sigh*
But anyway, we spent another half hour keeping track of things, and then went inside for a meal, more talk and everything else, before I started on this blog.

The dogs were completely bonkers when we got back inside, by the way, which is not surprising, since those choppers were roaring right overhead, and people were all over the place. Poor darlings were scared right out of their minds, I’m sure. Sitabah, for one, was curling herself around me, and Knight II was basically hanging out the window of my cabin, which he normally NEVER does, and, well…let’s just say they were upset.

By that time my adrenaline levels dropped drastically, making me feel sick as a dog, once more, and more than ready to head back to bed.

Which brings us to the end of the blog. Here are the pictures:
(Sorry if they're mixed up a little. Am feeling a little under the weather.)


A shot of the fire, of course. Nice and smoky, not very impressive since you can't see all that much.


This is a damage shot from afterwards.


The first chopper coming in.


Firemen checking the parts that are off.


More firemen at work.


Fire expert pointing out what seems to be the spot where the fire started.


The chopper coming to pick up the firemen afterwards.


More loading up afterwards.


Holding back the flames crawling up to our terrace. Hardly had any pressure on the hose, though.


The area taped off by officials.


More firemen.


Another fire shot.


The fire.


The chopper coming in with the bag. YAY!


Another chopper shot. Very impressive to see it come down on such a relatively small spot.


The fire again...I know, I messed up the loading.


This is how we left them to checking the aftermath. *sigh*
I wanna go to bed now.