[notfarnow]

I typically have the kids on Monday, but this week my ex asked me to trade for Tuesday. I agreed but was pretty pissy about it.

I got home around 5 and got a big humpin fire going in the fireplace insert. I'd had 4-5 fires already this season. I watched some TV, had a nap and woke up around 7pm. I loaded the fireplace again, and hummed and hawed about getting up and going to home depot. They had a truckload sale on kitchen cabinets, and I needed a 15" base cabinet for some changes I was doing in the kitchen in the next few weeks, and I knew they only had two left... I figured it would be just my luck to go the next day and find they'd sold them.

I went to Home Depot to get the cabinet, then went to another hardware store to get a wide pine plank for a threshold between the master bedroom and the walk in closet I was making. I stopped and got a coffee, because I was going to work on the house when I got home.

When I walked in the house around 930, I heard a smoke detector going off and I could smell smoke. I looked around and couldn't see anything.

Years ago, at my old house, I had a wood burning insert as well. When they installed it, they didn't clean the chimney before running the stainless liner. One day at that house, I had a great big fire going and smelled smoke, and could see small whiffs of smoke coming from behind the surround that overlaps the brick... I pulled the cover off and saw a bunch of soot and creosote on top of the stove, glowing red and smoking. Cleaned it and never had the problem again.

So in my mind, knowing I'd had a huge fire going, and given that experience at my old house, I figured that was the issue. The smoky smell was in the livingroom but there was no visible smoke. I couldn't take the cover off this insert, because the apes who put it in had used 6 big screws into the brick to secure it. The fire was almost out, but I pinched it down anyway and decided to stay in the livingroom and keep an eye on it. I pulled the battery out of the smoke detector that was going off upstairs.

I parked myself in the living room instead of doing the work I'd planned to do on the house that night. I did some emails, texted with my girlfriend, and eventually fell asleep on the couch.

I woke up sometime around 11ish and was cold because the fire had been out for hours now. Everything seemed fine, and I debated going upstairs to bed, but the whole thing still had me a bit spooked. I turned the electric heat up and went back to sleep on the couch.

I woke up again on the couch at some point within a couple hours, and everything seemed fine. If there was anything wrong with the fireplace, it was cooled off now. I got off the couch and went to bed.

At 330, I was awoken by the sound of an alarm. I reached over to hit snooze on my phone a few times before I realized that it was the smoke detector (there was another one by the foot of the stairs downstairs). I got up and saw right away that it was smoky in my bedroom. I opened the bedroom door, it was VERY smoky upstairs, and then ran downstairs... I couldn't see or breath downstairs. I fumbled finding the doorway to the kitchen and got disoriented for a brief moment -this part I am still having nightmares about- before feeling around and getting my bearings. Made it to the kitchen, then to the mudroom where it wasn't smoky at all, then out onto the deck. I called 911, then popped back in the mudroom to grab my coat, then on the deck again. Up to this point I hadn't seen any flames, but once I got out on the deck again a window in the livingroom shattered and flames started to pour out. Within minutes all the windows in the livingroom were out and you could see flames in the diningroom and then again within a couple more minutes.

The first police car was there in 6 minutes. The first firetruck was there a couple minutes later. Within a few minutes the upstairs was engulfed and it was obvious that they were not fighting the fire to save the home, but to contain it.

There's a lot more to be said about the whole experience, and I wish we had the setting of a bar to talk it through. It was unsettling how hypnotic it was to watch the house burn, while drinking coffee in the neighbor's porch.

One thing I will say is that we take for granted the services and resources that are a 3 digit phone call away. Within 10 minutes of that 911 call, there must have been a couple dozen boots on the ground, millions of dollars of equipment, and untold years of training and expertise. I watched firefighters going into my burning home hours after the fire had started. I will never forget it, and I don't know that I'll ever be able to listen to people ***** about those salaries and the tax dollars spent there.

I will also say that I am the luckiest son of a ***** I know. There are other ways this could have played out for me and my family, I have nightmares about them. It helps me keep things in perspective when I start *****ing about the logistics and inconveniences I'm facing now.