too close for comfort

Confession: with every potty break throughout the night - we are peeking out the drapes.
Is the car still there? Have squatters moved into the shed? Is there a party going on at the Peoria Sports Complex? Is there a fire in the alley?
It was no surprise that there were popping noises going on somewhere west of us.

After my husband's two a.m. "break", he peeked.
He woke me up with a voice I have only heard once or twice before.

"Babe, the house down the alley is on fire."

I looked out the window and didn't see a fire truck, but did see a garage fully engulfed... a few houses down on the other side of the alley.

A blaze that big... surely somebody has called the fire department already.

But what if they hadn't (it took me a few minutes to realize that).

I put on something more suitable and ran downstairs. When I opened the garage there was a man standing in the alley.

The only other person that had woken up to all of the popping and cracking noises was our most trusted and beloved neighbor, Brother Danny Taylor.

Stone Cold Sober, he was on the phone with 911.

It was really scary. The Fire Engines couldn't seem to figure out right away where the blaze was... the alley complicating things. I stood from my garage yelling at Danny, "Should we start hosing your house down?" as the blaze got bigger and bigger.

When the roof blew off the garage with a little boom and a great big fire ball, I got really scared. The flames were at least as high as the two story house. Our houses are especially close together... being in Patio homes. Easily there were lots of others at risk. All sleeping soundly.

They parked the engine in front of our garage, hopped down and started pulling hoses. I felt relieved, but it took longer than I had hoped to put out the fire completely. They brought in a ladder truck parked in the front of the house, to see that the roof was completely out.

It is three hours later. I was supposed to wake up right now to start working on my big activity today. The big engine is still parked behind our garage.

I need a nap.