Fire Fire Fire!

 So, a few weekends ago, Floyd said to me, "I'm bored.  I need a project."  None of the projects I tired to come up with were exactly what he was hoping for, but don't worry.  Mother Nature pulled through.  The very next morning our pipes were frozen, and not just the frozen a little bit, warm them up kind of frozen.  The make three gigantic holes in three different rooms of your house, tear down shower tile, and solder copper pipe back together kind of frozen.  Which apparently still wasn't quite enough of a project for Floyd cause he decided to go ahead and raise the stakes on Mother Nature during that "solder copper pipe back together" step by lighting the insulation on fire. 

So here's how it went down for the Official and Eternal Griffiths Family Record (aka my blog):

Floyd screams, "I need water."  I quickly remind him, "You turned the water off to fix the pipe," while running upstairs to see why he needs water.  I figured it out pretty quick when I saw flames coming out of the torn out tile hole in the shower wall.  So, I handed him a cup of water that we had sitting out and ran outside to get a water bottle from his trunk.  Unfortunately, they were all frozen.  Then the kids and I all ran downstairs to the food storage room and loaded up on water bottles.  Floyd doused the fire pretty good and pulled out a lot of burned insulation from the wall.  Then, he carefully crept through the giant hole in the wall he had made earlier in the day in our room (which I was a bit upset about at the time since it turned out to not allow access to the pipe and was a pointless hole in the wall) to take a look at the other side.  He heard a very faint pop, realized we had now way of knowing where it was coming from or getting to it, and said, "call 'em" (in reference to the fire department).

So, call them we did and the kids and I gathered up a few very important things and pulled the Yukon out of the garage onto the road and waited.  A few (really just a few - they were fast) minutes later, no fewer than 8! firetrucks and rescue vehicles appeared.  They quickly entered the house, checked it out with their heat-sensing camera, found a few hot spots, took the sledge hammer to the bathroom walls, climbed around in the attic, sprayed some pink stuff everywhere, and declared it safe. 

 Meanwhile back at the ranch, the kids and I headed over to a concerned neighbor's house.  She fed the kids dinner and let them play with her grandkids toys for an hour or so and then we went home. 

So here's how we all fared:

Floyd:  Just fine.  Got his project.  Everything but the giant hole in my bedroom wall is fixed and functioning again.

Katie:  Did not panic.  Had a bit of a hard time sleeping the first night worrying about a tiny spark still hiding out in the wall.  Having my house catch on fire was always my worst fear as a child.

Cole:  As soon as he heard there was a fire, he very responsibly had Annie and Ben put on their shoes in case we had to evacuate, which saved us a couple minutes when we decided we did in fact need to evacuate.  Enjoyed his time at the neighbor's house.  Was very concerned about the safety of his pet lizard and fish (who are fine).  Had a few moments of panic, but overall did well.  Slept on mom and dad's floor that night.

Annie:  True to her nature, didn't say much during or after the event.  She just kind of watched it all and who knows what she thought about it.  

Ben:  Had the time of his life.  He spent the whole day using daddy's tools to "help" fix the frozen pipe and then got all kinds of big vehicles to come visit.  He loved every minute and now tells us he is going to be a fireman when he grows up ('cept sometimes he says he is going to be a "firetruck" instead and that always makes us smile).  He asked us to print a picture of the firetruck for him and he carries it around to show people.

So, here's to our tax dollars at work!  Thanks for saving our house, North View Fire Department.  And I'm gonna go make a list so that next time I have something to offer Floyd when he says, "I need a project."