Grampy was walking his dogs last night when he spied flames shooting up over the treetops at a property across the street from our house. He came inside to get Big Daddy. Of course, Grammy and I followed out, cherubs in tow. We couldn't think of anything that would make such a large fire except a house that was burning down. And we didn't hear any fire trucks. So, Big Daddy went into the house, got the phone, and dialed 911.
He walked outside with the phone, which was ringing. Then, Grampy made an astute observation: "Shouldn't we know where the fire is before we call 911?" Good point.
Big Daddy hung up the phone, and he and Grampy hopped in the car to drive to the fire location. Grammy and I stayed outside with the girls, watching the flames lick the sky. A few minutes later, Grampy and Big Daddy pulled into the driveway and let us know all about the fire.
Apparently, a few miles away, there was a big auction being held. Rather than rent spotlights, the auction company built an enormous bonfire to draw attention to the auction. Yes, we live in the country.
We all went inside, and saw on our caller ID that we had a call from the local sheriff in response to that aborted call to 911. I returned their call and explained the situation, and the dispatcher thanked us for calling back to let them know. About 10 minutes later, a car pulled into the driveway. One of our town's five police officers had come to check on things. As Big Daddy was explaining the auction bonfire to him, yet another one of our town's five police officers pulled into our driveway. Big Daddy explained the auction bonfire again. The cops were very gracious. I'm sure it was more action than they'd seen in quite a while.
I wonder how many other people called 911 last night about that bonfire ...
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7 comments:
I've stopped drinking coffee when I read your RSS feed for fear that I will send some flying across my laptop. Of course, this post illustrates well, my fear. We don't even have police officers. If anything happens here we have to call 911 which decides if they want to wake up the sleeping Sheriff deputy (their words not mine) of the next county over. :)
That is hilarious. I did the same thing when driving through the country one night, turns out it was a flare from a small plant's sub-station. When I realized my mistake I called back but the fire team from my husband's chemical plant were already in route. The next day the fire team was talking about how exciting it was to actually get a call even though it turned out to be just a flare!
Joe - I guess we're still pretty urban compared to you - ha ha!
Kara - I don't think the police have had so much to do since the big truck and tractor pull!
That's so funny!!!! You guess must really live WAY out there, LOL!
Okay I'm totally on your side and would have called, but like the other commenters I'm dying laughing that the whole police force showed up to double check! I think I need to move your town since I love that kind of life...bonfires and auctions just go together. :)
This sounds like our little city. I live in a municipality within a large city and we have our own police force and they come runnin' at the sight or sound of anything - it's a good thing, huh!?
Take care - Kellan
I'm sure you're the only one who called 911. :) And, yes, you've given the police some mighty excitement. They'll be talking about this for weeks.
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