Fire Trucks and Smoke

It’s not the kind of thing you want to see outside of your house when coming home from a morning walk. We heard the fire engine sirens in the distance but got a bit nervous when they all started turning down the street that we live on. I had a feeling that it was our building out of all the houses on the block. And for one time I wish I was wrong - but I wasn’t. The circle drive had one truck in it with the ladder extended to the roof, and there were at least 15 vehicles of all sorts surrounding the house on both sides - and they kept coming. All the neighbors were out in the street looking to see what was going on. Of course I could only think of the worst, and wondered what we would do if everything burned to the ground. But I didn’t smell anything - a good sign! We finally reached the house and spoke with a few residents to learn what happened. The front door was wide open with many fire hoses ready to get turned on. Apparently the boiler room was smoking from some malfunction and someone happened to notice it and called 911. The big fans came in as the carbon monoxide level was higher than anyone could live to tell about. After about an hour or so things started to settle down and it was just a matter of clearing things away. The DC fire department was very responsive and communicative. It all could have been a lot worse. Thank goodness it wasn’t.