Tuesday Night or Fire Fight?

So we get this call from my brother telling us that there is a wild fire across the street from his house and that he has been ordered to evacuate in one minute. Well for those of you who don't know what kind of people Erik and I are....we love to follow fires, storms, tornadoes, or pretty much anything that has to do with natural disaster! I don't really know why we like to do these sorts of things. I would like to believe that its because we are so eager to serve and help anyone in need that we follow these events to see if we can help, but I'm afraid its just more for the thrill.

Anyways after the phone call from my brother, we decide to go meet up with him and kinda hang out so that he stays calm (after all it is only HIS HOUSE!).

This is the video clip from the side of the road where we were watching the fire. Just keep in mind that his house is right where you see the BIG cloud of smoke...

Later on in the day we decided to go back to his house to see if the roads were open so we could assess the damage. Well the roads were still closed but they were letting people back in on foot. The fire was still burning across the street but it was mostly "hot spots". So Erik and Curtis (my brother) went in to help. All the while I'm driving around trying to find a pay phone because my cell phone died and I didn't know where Erik was. Anyways I got a hold of Erik and he told me that road was open and they were just putting out "hot spots" with a garden hose and buckets of water. So I decide to drive to the house to pick up Erik so we could go home. I couldn't have been more wrong about what was going to happen next. I parked the car, got out to look around and things were pretty bad! Everything was torched across the street and the guys were doing a great job of keeping the fire away from the homes. Almost a minute after I got out of the car we hear someone yelling for help. We turn around to find 10ft high flames right in front of us. I pick up Treven (I know, I know, mother of the year award for letting my son out at a fire!) and throw him in the car and we drive off to find a fire truck while we watched Erik disappear into the smoke and flames. OK so to condense the story, Erik, Curtis, my dad, and whoever else was standing near by were able to stop the flames from reaching the houses! Yippee!

The kids and I had started on our way to my moms house because I didn't know where else to go and lets face it, in times of distress everyone wants their mom! Now let me remind you that the last time I saw Erik was as he was running INTO the fire! So I am completely validated in my tears! Yes, I was bawling like a baby. I didn't know what else to do and remember that my cell phone was not working, so I had no way of knowing if Erik was O.K.! As I was driving, in between my sobs, Treven very gently says "Mom, it's o.k. Jesus is going to save my daddy." Talk about faith. My fears have never subsided so fast as they did in that car at that time. If Treven knew that his daddy was going to be OK, then I needed to trust him!

So that is just a small overview of the Bassett happenings on Tuesday night. We went back to the site of the fire today to take some video footage for our family to see how "STUPID" we were.