Fire, Bad!

When Rae was a few weeks old, we had an earthquake. I was napping with him on the air mattress and it felt like the wall jumped out and hit me. I was so tired, I just went back to sleep. (As it turned out, the only damage in our house was a couple of pictures that fell down.)

A few days ago, the wall jumped out and hit me again, only this time it was an explosion… in my neighbor's house. 

It was almost bedtime for my boys. Joe and Rae were bathed and changed into pajamas. We were watching a movie on the couch. I think Caleb was asleep in the swing. We heard a boom and felt the whole building jump (we live in a townhouse). 

A few minutes later, there's banging on my door and someone yelling, "Evacuate!". I get the boys in coats and rush outside with Caleb and hand him to the first neighbor I see. I run inside to grad Joe and hold Rae's hand. I throw the bag of mittens and gloves onto the sidewalk. 

I call Mr. Graff. "There's a fire. You need to get home now." 

I call my brother-in-law. "There's a fire. Can we stay at your house?" 

"Whose baby is this?" my neighbor holding Caleb asks forlornly. His house is the one on fire and he's hysterical. He hands me Caleb and goes to find his wife, who is in such shock, she's not talking. Her skin is peeling---like how it peels a few days after a really bad sunburn. I hand him my phone when he asks to borrow one. "Whose phone is this?" he asks. 

Another lady offers to let the kids sit in her car. It's cold outside. I'm trying to get us as far away from the scene as possible. Fire trucks choke the entrances and exits. We walk a block north and Joel picks us up. He starts talking, but I'm only registering every other word. We're safe. We're going somewhere safe. 

I need to know what happened. I head out to get diapers and formula for Caleb. We have emergency medical supplies for Joe in the van, so I feel okay about getting his needs met. Rae just needs to sleep. We all need to sleep. 

The lieutenant walks me through my home. No water damage. No smoke smell. He tells me that water can take awhile to seep down through the houses, so it is best to stay away instead of having the roof collapse while we are sleeping. 

Mr. Graff checks the house in the morning. No water damage. We go back home and watch the construction workers board up our neighbors' houses. Rae presses his face to the front window. I try to take a shower, but every noise I hear, I'm afraid that Rae is running outside to see what is going on. 

The first picture here is from our backyard. The back wall of the neighbor's house is gone. You can see the chimney of the fireplace.

From the front yard, all you can see is a little of the siding gone. Firefighters cut holes in the roof to help put out the fire. The roof, the siding the back are all destroyed. 

The fireplace was across the wall from my upstairs neighbor's kids room. They were both in that room when it happened. I'm not sure they want to go back. The next day, the kids' roof had collapsed from water. The upstairs of their town home is a disaster. 

We watched the construction workers put up plywood. They equip a ladder with a motorized pulley that shoots the plywood upwards. Spiffy, because it was windy and the plywood would become a kite if you tried carrying it up that ladder. Plywood kite = no bueno. My house is the one with the red garland on the front railing. 

Rae can tell you all about the "Fire trucks, water, whoosh!, and going to Uncle Joel's house". The condo association is going to send someone to inspect our house to see if there is water damage. 

Life in the big city. 

And on a better note, here's more about my littles: 

Here is Rae taking a nap in his "tunnel". 

Rae likes playing big brother, especially having his picture taken with Caleb. Caleb likes Rae and particularly Joe. 

Joe, for his part, has finally accepted Caleb into his tribe. He's patting Caleb and touching his face. He  looks for Caleb's binky when he cries. He rubs Caleb's belly. Here he is stuffing Caleb's binky toward his face. 

Brotherly love. 

This is Rae with his backward-facing pants. I can't convince him that the zipper goes in front because he needs his "pockets" for his pencils and "gun". "How are you going to go potty if the zipper is in the back?" I ask. "I just PULL really hard!"

The logic on that boy. 

He wanted water, so he asked me to get it for him. "You have two hands," he tells me. 

I put away the pliers he's stolen from the tool bucket. "It's a little tool!" Meaning, he's little, so little tools are for him. 

When he doesn't want to do something, he'll say, "NO. NOT." And when he does, "I can help." Or, "I got this." If we say no, he says, "but I LIKE caffeine" or whatever it is we're talking about.  (That one was Grandma's soda.)

On the way to church (which was cancelled), Rae was singing along to "Follow the Prophet". It made my heart happy. He's at a fun age.