The Great Fire of ‘08

I guess I should start at the beginning. My parents finally made it back to Louisiana, and we decided to pay them a visit their first week in their new house. We had some items we were not using so we packed it up in one of Jared’s trucks. So Friday night, with him driving the truck, and me driving all the kiddies, we headed to see my parents. We arrived pretty late, around 12:30. We unpacked the car, but left unpacking the truck for Saturday morning. We sat around and talked, I cleaned some bottles, Jared and I took the boys out, and we went to bed around 1:30am. While we were outside with the dogs everything seemed fine, but it just wasn’t so.
I woke up to sound of the dogs running around on the hardwood floor, and I quickly invited them to join us in the bed, I was tired and just wanted to sleep. Not even a minute later Grace started waking up, so I knew I had to get up. When I did, I realized Oakley was sitting up in the bed, and he looked scared. I didn’t think anything of it, because I figured he just had to go to the bathroom. So I asked Jared to get up and help since all our kids were ready to start their day. He asked if my dad gave me the alarm code, and I didn’t, but I went out into the living room to see if maybe he was awake yet. I didn’t want to wake everyone up by setting off the alarm. HA!! All the lights were off, but I went into the kitchen and I noticed a light from the other side of the blinds. I walked over and looked out. This is what I saw.

I just stood there for a minute frozen in place. I just couldn’t grasp what I was looking at, and listening to the crackling. Then very quietly I whispered, “Fire.” And that’s when it hit me, the truck is on fire! I started screaming, “FIRE, FIRE, THE TRUCK IS ON FIRE, GET UP, GET UP NOW!” Everyone started running. They all ran to the window and looked out. I’m not really sure what I was doing for those few seconds after, but I know I grabbed Grace, gave her to my mom, Jared called 911, my dad got the hose, I grabbed the camera (I guess I felt better, if I can document), and we (me, Jared, and my dad) all ran outside. I got three pictures off before some pretty bad popping started. That’s when we all ran back inside, grabbed what we needed, and ran out to the street. It seemed like forever until the fire trucks got there.
When it was all over, the following pictures are what was left to the truck. We spoke with he police and the fire department and everyone was convinced it was an electical issue.




Watching how fast it burned, I really think it hadn't been going on long before I woke up. We were all very lucky considering. My poor parents haven't even been in their house a week, and I'm so greatful it didn't burn down. The house was fine and so were we. The poor concrete is a different story.