Thursday, October 8, 2009

Unexpected Vacation

Monday started like any other day. I got kids ready and out the door, went to work, picked kids up, cooked dinner, did homework, etc. Once everyone was in bed I decided to stay up and watch a little TV by myself and enjoy the peace. Around 10:30 my cell phone rang. Thinking "who the heck is calling me at this hour?" I got up and answered it. It was my friend Sherri, who I work with. "Kelly?" "Yes." "Sorry to call you this late, but Greg just called me and Randall is on fire." (Randall is the school we work at and Greg is a coworker.) "Are you serious?" "Yes, Greg says he can see it from his house." "Are you going up there?" "Yeah." "I'll meet you there in 10 minutes." When we arrived this is what we saw.





I have to admit it's a bit surreal to see someplace that you spend quite a bit of time on fire.

Within a few minutes a group of my coworkers are standing outside the school (most of them were still in their pajamas). The fire was put out within about 15 minutes and the firemen did an excellent job. We ended up hanging out for 2 hours and finally decided to head home.

Tuesday afternoon Sherri, my other friend, Jen and I went to the school to see things after the fact. This is what we saw.







The smell of smoke was extremely strong throughout the whole building. This may be TMI, but after I had been home for a few hours I blew my nose and for a minute couldn't figure out why my snot was black. There was a layer of soot on everything. Ceiling tiles were being yanked down. Carpet was being ripped out. It was kind of like walking into The Twilight Zone.

Needless to say school has been canceled since then. We're supposed to go back on Monday. Depends on the smell in the building. I have to admit I'm ready to go back. Slightly bored and I miss my 400 other kids.

7 comments:

Louise said...

Oh Kelly, I am so grateful no one was hurt, but saddened by the fire. My Perri loves this place.
Take care of your lungs child, if the smell is still bad on Monday, I pray they cancel school again.
I know people have to work & kids need school, but that can be made up in the Spring. Once you've damaged your health, it can become a life-long issue.
Thanks for sharing the photos.
I love you.

Trish said...

I heard the sirens just after 10:00 that night. I knew something major was going on because I have never heard so many...and they just kept coming! It's sad to drive past ...I was a 2nd grader there...many moons ago!

Addie said...

That's too bad. Did they find out what started the fire? It could have been much worse, glad they got it out so fast.

Unknown said...

WOW Kelly that is crazy. Glad there were no kids there!! HOpe all gets fixed and you can resume school :). your blog looks great!

Constance said...

WOW! That is every kids dream, their school catching on fire but as adults, we see the big picture! How did it start?

6 years ago, our best friends (Randy & Lynette) house caught on fire. The whole thing was gutted and it took *6 months before they were back in. Lynette at that time baby sat Jelly Bean our grand-daughter who was 11 moths old when the house was damaged. They weren't inside more than 1-2 minutes when Lynette discovered the fire in the laundry room. When Jess gave Jelly Bean a bath, there was a black soot ring in the tub!!

Fortunately your fire happened when no one was there, it could've been traumatic on the kids had a fire drill been MORE than a fire drill!
Connie

Pat said...

Those are awesome pictures, better then any I've seen in the paper.
I hate to see something like this, but thank the Lord there were no children in school.

sanjeet said...

Did they find out what started the fire? It could have been much worse, glad they got it out so fast.

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