A mother and two daughters had their house catch on fire. Most of their possessions were destroyed. They also lost three dogs and nine cats in the blaze. What a disaster*.
Mary knew the younger of the daughters. My cat named Misay knew one of their cats who spent some of their time outdoors. Misay is an indoor cat, but the other cat would come by our garage and Misay would hang out there too waiting for her friend.
There's a video at the link, and in the background of it, there is a brief glimpse of the street I live on.
In 49 years I've lived, only once have I been close to being in a house or workplace fire. It was in 1970's when my family was still living on Long Island. We had a grease fire start in the kitchen. My brother Charlie got it extinguished very quickly.
Some of the places I knew when stationed at Subic Bay in the Philippines were destroyed when Mt. Pinatubo blew its top in 1991 but I had left the Navy in 1989.
*- The local newspaper has two people living in the house and the family having two dogs and five cats. I know it was a family of three, the pet total I'm not sure of and Mary is at school and unavailable to answer my question.
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When I lived...
...in Russia, one of the families I knew (somewhat reluctantly, unfortunately) had the entry to their apartment burn because the (so-called) father came home drunk, sat down in the entry to take off his shoes, lit a cigarette, and fell asleep. I got a call at about 2 in the morning from the (so-called) mother asking for help. Of course I went, but I had to hold my temper firmly in check when she started, at one point, hitting her 6-year-old daughter and 4-or-5-year-old son, who had been awakened and extracted from the apartment, and were upset. Unfortunately, my relations with the police in that village were a bit strained, and the treatment of child abuse in the country was completely inadequate (not to mention the conditions in the few orphanages I was able to visit were horrific), so I had to let the situation stay as it was. Fortunately, the apartment wasn't a total loss, even after the smoke damage (extensive). And, while the (so-called) father was fortunately kicked out forthwith, they unfortunately lost the tiny bit of income his dole brought in, having to rely on her minuscule and frequently-late pay from her job. >.< I helped to arrange for one of her neighbors to watch her children for a while after their... kindergarten is the only word I can think of, but not >quite< right... finally kicked them out in the afternoon. >.<
Fires are such a trial. >.< And housefires were one of my childhood terrors. (I still have the occasional element to a nightmare that stems from that. Especially since the >smell< in that apartment...)
-Liz, who just realized that that was more than 12 years ago now... >.< Time flies.
Successor to the LToC
-Liz
Successor to the LToC
Formerly known as "momonoimoto"