2006-01-13

A True and Amazing Story

It was the middle of winter, in the days just past Christmas, about 23 years ago, and my boyfriend Steve and I had hitchhiked from Massachusetts up to his family's house in the country near Burlington, Vermont. We were staying in the attic, where all of his belongings were. One day, when we were alone at home, sitting at the kitchen table for a late breakfast, we noticed smoke. The attic above us was on fire. We tried to call the fire department, but the phone line ran through the attic and was burned off already. Steve found a ladder outside and leaned it up under the attic window, and turned on the garden hose. He told me to run down the road to a neighbor's house and call the fire department. I took off and ran the half kilometer to the nearest neighbor and rang the door bell. There was no one home. I tried the door, and it worked to open, so I went in and called. I went out again and ran back up the road to Steve. He was up on the ladder spraying water in through the window he'd broken. A few minutes later the fire engines came, and Steve climbed down to me, a bit burnt, very black and sooty, and coughing. We couldn't do anything more, and were not allowed near the house by the firemen, so we hurried back down the road to the neighbors house to call Steve's dad at work and to wash up. When we got to the house, we tried the door. It was locked. We couldn't get in. We walked the quarter kilometer further to the next house, but no one was home there either. There were no more houses for four or five kilometers after that. We turned back towards home, but were picked up by Steve's dad who'd heard about the fire on the radio and understood that it was his house. When we got back to the house the fire was under control. The firemen said that if they'd gotten there a few minutes later the entire house would have burned down. The only reason it hadn't, it turned out, was that by PURE LUCK the neighbors hadn't pulled the door shut well enough that morning so that the automatic lock snapped into place. I had pulled it shut as I left.

Everything Steve owned was destroyed in that fire, and all that I had with me except for my swiss army knife, which was a present from Steve. It had lain on the floor, and the red plastic on the top had melted a bit and become charred, but had retained its shape. I have it on the desk in front of me right now. Anyone who visits me may see it.

19 Comments:

Blogger Squiggle said...

What a horrible tale! ... At lease those Swiss miracle workers gave you at least something good to remember.

5:29 PM, January 13, 2006  
Blogger Jeanne said...

Squiggle,
True. And its aftermath was also my first taste of the callous cynicism of insurance companies.

5:36 PM, January 13, 2006  
Blogger charles blunt said...

Interesting story . I left you a comment about Essex Junction on my blog

8:09 PM, January 13, 2006  
Blogger Greg Garvin said...

A brush with death often wakes one up to life. Glad you are here to tell.

12:22 AM, January 15, 2006  
Blogger Jeanne said...

Gar,
It wasn't so much a brush with death as a brush with destruction. Brushes with death have the opposite effect on me. They make me distrust life. I am far too aware of mortality as it is.

2:46 PM, January 15, 2006  
Blogger tsduff said...

Jeanne, I sympathise with you. House fires are pretty horrible. Mine burned in 1998 when my daughter left a candle burning in her room. Nobody got hurt - got the dogs out and all the people, but the house was a total loss. And although my insurance company paid out, they hate me now - LOL. They are terrible to deal with.

7:34 PM, January 15, 2006  
Blogger consise10 said...

Wow what a horrendus memory Jeanne !Just pure luck that the neighbours door was open. Thankfully it was only material which was destroyed.

11:14 AM, January 16, 2006  
Blogger brendar said...

Fire is a strange component of life. It is unmatched in it's capacity to bring both comfort and terror. When I was on a submarine you would think that flooding would have been our biggest concern but it was fire that worried us most.

2:36 PM, January 16, 2006  
Blogger Jeanne said...

Terry,
I hope your parents/parents in law had many pictures of your children, to compensate for the ones you must have lost. Otherwise, it's the things people have made/written etc. that must be the greatest loss. I don't think Steve was very attached to possesions, fortunately. The worst part for him was that he had invested a great deal of money in physics text books, which are remarkably expensive, but which were devaluated by the insurance company to a fraction of what it would have costed to replace them.

4:15 PM, January 16, 2006  
Blogger Jeanne said...

Consise,
I find it a stimulating memory, because I felt so "protected" by Chance, or what have you.

4:17 PM, January 16, 2006  
Blogger Jeanne said...

Steve,
I don't believe that experience was a pivot point of any particular import. Of course, it's part of the great connect-the-dots picture that is my past. And it has given me the occasional nightmare in which I can't manage to ring the telephone number right in an emergency.

4:27 PM, January 16, 2006  
Blogger Jeanne said...

Brendar,
I know I recommended a hair cut, but this was a bit extreme.

4:29 PM, January 16, 2006  
Blogger Jeanne said...

Festi,
I didn't mean to tell you that at all.

8:24 PM, January 17, 2006  
Blogger tsduff said...

Actually, having a fire and losing most of my photos and letters etc. only drove home the point that nothing is permanent. I have my loved ones - they are incased in my heart forever. Material things have become rather unimportant. In fact I joke about it now - got too much junk? Have a house fire! It was a horrible and traumatic experience at the time - but time has now softened the edges so that it remains only another part of my life's adventures.

9:10 PM, January 17, 2006  
Blogger Jeanne said...

Terry,
My general assumption on the nature of life is this:
While I'm not willing to say that things always happen to us for a reason, I do believe that we can learn from everything once it actually has happened.

10:52 PM, January 18, 2006  
Blogger Greg Garvin said...

"While I'm not willing to say that things always happen to us for a reason, I do believe that we can learn from everything once it actually has happened."

Good thought. Depending on your angle of approach, there may be no difference.

11:02 PM, January 21, 2006  
Blogger Jeanne said...

Gar,
I personally doubt that all the great masses that are subjected to group "misfortune", such as concentration camps, starvation, the after-effects of nuclear bombs, etc., are intended to experience these things for their own good. Letting such events happen is one thing, intending them is another.

10:35 AM, January 23, 2006  
Blogger Kathy said...

What a story! My first impression after reading it for the first time is how quickly you both responded. Your quick wits and persistence saved the day for your boyfriend's family - It's terrible to lose everything you own, but it happens and you were young enough to make up the loss.

9:40 PM, January 30, 2006  
Blogger Jeanne said...

Kathy,
I hope my wits have not grown duller with age, and I hope I don't have to test them.

11:54 PM, January 30, 2006  

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