Fire!!

I have been meaning to tell this story since Sunday, but I haven't had a real chance to sit down and write it. So Sunday evening was a bit chilly and Chris and I decide to start a fire (in the fireplace!!). Chris has a lot of extra wood from work, but we don't have any kindling, so he put a little bit of kerosene on the wood and lights it. Unfortunately, he put too little fuel and our fire quickly dies out before the wood catches on fire. So he waits about 10 minutes to make sure there is no flame. (At the time, I was on the couch feeding our daughter). Chris decided to put a little (lot) more on this time to try to get the fire going. He starts to pour on the fuel on when...

WOOSH! The fire is all of a sudden HUGE! (Apparently, there was still a flame in there somewhere). The flames came out of the fireplace and caught the fuel can on fire as well as my husband's leg and the carpet! So I jump up and run in to the kitchen to get water (all while my boob is hanging out, mind you) and Chris is jumping on the carpet to put it out and then he throws the can out on to the balcony, where the can proceeds to tip over and make the fire bigger! So my brave, brave husband picks up the burning fuel can and throws it out onto the concrete basketball court that is right outside of our apartment. SO now there is a small bonfire in the middle of the basketball court and next thing you know, our "special" neighbors (I'll post about them too in a minute) come running out of the apartment below us yelling, "Fire, fire!!" Since my kitchen window was open, I very quickly cover myself up and roll my eyes. I mean, what the heck were these people doing, staring out the window? There is no other way in the world it is possible for them to have seen the fire that quickly. So anyways, all is well except my hubby has a burnt finger, a little less hair on his legs and we have some burnt carpet. (oh and a blazing fire in the fireplace, toasty!)

So let me explain a little bit about our neighbors who live downstairs before I move on. They are weird. I don't mean like X-files weird, I mean like they have lots of issues weird. Our encounters with them have never been pleasant, or anything like unto it. Whenever we see them (which is rare, thank goodness) we are polite and we say hi. What do we get back? Nothing except an evil glare that makes me regret saying hi. They have two daughters who seem like they are from a scary movie. Whenever they are outside and you walk by, they stop whatever they are doing and just stand there and stare at you until you are inside your apartment. I have never heard the dad say a word, and the mom is the worst one. We used to have plants hanging from our balcony, but we were asked to take them down because apparently our family of the corn downstairs was complaining because water was dripping onto their barbecue (uh hello? what do you do when it rains?). I was talking with the manager yesterday (who happens to be in my ward) and she was telling me they are moving! HALLELUJAH! I guess other things have happened like their car getting egged and so they want to move (and maybe our fire was the last straw, who knows?) But also the neigbors downstairs who are next door to them are moving and it's because of the evil family!

So back to the fire story. So this family comes running out and freaking out even though the fire is out in the basketball court and never came anywhere even close to them. Chris went down and put out the fire on the basketball court, no problem. My husband being the great man he is, then goes to our downstairs neighbors and apologizes! Well, at first, the mom sounded really pissed off (oh yeah, I was hanging out on our balcony listening to the conversation, hehe). Then she has the nerve to give Chris some matches and say "here, play it safe." WHAT? You think my husband is some pyromaniac??? So Chris says, "hey, I am not a pyro, it was a complete accident. Accidents happen you know." And she proceeds to tell him that she is just always worried because she has a baby...I tell you, I was this close to storming downstairs and asking her what she thought I had, some sort of vegetable?? Geez, the nerve of that woman! She also is apparently very uneducated because she went off about how she was glad it didn't come into their backyard because they have a propane tank down there, but it was empty, but it could have blown up the whole buidling. Well, first of all, the fire really wasn't that big and second of all, it would take about 20 minutes in a BLAZING fire for it to even consider blowing up. Gosh.

Also in talking to the manager, this family had wanted the managers or us to replace their barbecue because we had gotten fuel all over the place (totally untrue by the way, the only thing we got was water down there).

So that was our exciting/scary happening this week. Here's a picture of our burnt carpet:



Dang it, now we are definitely going to have to have the carpet replaced when we move...oh well, I am just grateful we are all alive and safe, even though sometimes I wish our neighbors weren't...