It could have been worse...

Last night Mark and I went to bed a little later than usual.  We are getting old and I'm exhausted by 10:00, but I was repackaging 40 pounds of ground beef and it took longer than I expected.  It was 11:00 when we climbed into bed.  At 11:20 Mark jumped out of bed, turned on the closet light and I could hear him getting dressed.  As he was heading out the door I asked what was wrong.  He said, "Something is on fire."  I didn't smell anything and was comfortably in bed so I laid there for a bit.  A few minutes later I heard him come back in the door and go to the kitchen.  I got up and followed him around sniffing areas of the apartment.  He had walked around our building outside and didn't see smoke or anything unusual.  We have a neighbor behind us that smokes.  We can smell every cigarette that gets lit up.  Their garage borders our kitchen and the boys bedroom.  As we sniffed around all of the rooms we could tell that the smell was coming from the neighbors garage and it wasn't the smell of cigarettes.  It was definitely a fire.  I asked Mark to go out one more time and just double check.  He was outside for a loooooooong time so I got dressed and went out to see what was going on.  There were red lights flashing and the fire department was already there.  Mark had felt their garage door and it was hot, unlike the others.  He knew there was a fire but the neighbors didn't answer the door.  He had some different neighbors call 911 while he alerted others.  The firefighters had to pop the garage door open.  Apparently there was a plastic trashcan that had smoldered (starting with a cigarette butt) and the fire was just starting to spread to more combustible things - some shirts and a couch were nearby.  They got the fire out just in time.  If Mark hadn't smelled a difference and investigated a bit it could have been devastating for our building.  Brett, Evan and Adam were sleeping just on the other side of the wall.  My heart was racing last night at the thought of what could have happened.  Mark and I both said a prayer of thanksgiving for the protection we had and for the quick response of the fire department.

So today we made some cookies and wrote a thank you card to take to the fire station.  Apparently it was a slow day and they were happy to give us a tour and let us have a turn spraying the fire hose.  Here are some pictures from our unplanned, but fun, afternoon at Fire House 63.  These firefighters were AWESOME!