Friday, May 16, 2008

Brooke Saves the Day....and the House!


Last night was a hot dogs and baked beens night. So, Crystal asks me to grill the hot dogs. Well, we have only a few tiny trees in the backyard, and so any leaves that blow around in the fall are usually ignored...and they were. So, I light the grill. I go inside while the grill warms up and a few minutes go by then I hear Brooke yelling "Daddy! Daddy!" And, as any parent knows, kids often cry "wolf"....so I kind of ignored her. After a few seconds (i'm not sure how long, but saying "seconds" makes me look better) I walk out to the back yard to see why she's yelling for me. That's when I see that the ground....and neglected leaves under the grill....were on fire. Yep, my leaves were burning under the grill. Now, there's not a lot of leaves, but about 3 feet away there was a much larger pile of (neglected) leaves right next to the house. The grill is only about a foot from the house and all these leaves. So, smoke is rising, ground is burning and Crystal's yelling "What do you want me to do?" I heard her, I did, but I was on a mission. I drop my new fancy Hot Dog Tongs (not thongs) and run for the hose. Now, here's where I'll allow myself some creative liberties. Seeing that I'm a fly fisherman, I know a thing or two about controling long lines....or hoses in this case. So, with the skill of a fly fisherman I "cast" the hose off the holder and crank the water on! I run back to the grill and start dousing the flames! It worked, the fire stopped, and after a bit more water, just to be sure, we were back to life as normal.

Crystal and I both made sure we told Brooke what a great job she did by yelling for us. Crystal said that next time she can yell "FIRE" as loud as she can, instead of just "Daddy!"

Seriously, it wasn't a huge deal, but only because Brooke said something. If she had not been out there playing, it would have only taken a minute or two before we would have had the house on fire and my fly fishing skills would have been good for nothing except providing us a few meals while we camp in the woods until the house is rebuilt.

Thanks Brooke! Great job!

3 comments:

Lynette said...

YIKES!!! That's scary...way to go Brooke for saving the day!

jill peters hawley said...

that's crazy! if you forget to put new batteries in your smoke detectors sometime at least you've got brooke. we are glad everyone is okay.

Ken said...

Good grief, Mike! I had no idea this happened. Very nice job by Brooke. That'll be a story she can tell for a long time...

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