TREE'S ON FIRE!

After church we finished getting Maysen and Jorja packed for Girls' Camp.  We dropped their stuff off at 5:00.  When we got back we were in the kitchen doing dishes.  I laughed because I noticed a quiz Maysen had taken in her mission prep class she went to today.  The quiz was titled 'Manners Matter' and the question was:  True or False You can use your finger as a pusher to get food on your fork.  Maysen answered: Can, yes.  Should, no.  Ha!  That's my literal girl.  Anyway, I saw that answer and was turning around to read it to Mike when a random stranger comes running up to our back door screaming, "Your tree's on fire!"  What the what?  We run outside and sure enough he's right. Mike ran to get the hose.  I ran to find the camera.  The flames were out by the time I got there, but they were going pretty high.

Smoke from our tree with random stranger

In the picture below Mike is asking me to go look for the fire extinguisher.  I guess I should have looked for that before my camera. Whoops.

Random stranger & Mike

Here is a ball from the batting cage that Jorja found.  It had been under our tree.

 The aftermath

The fountain from Mike's mom was also on fire.  I wonder if we will be able to get it to run again.

 Our electrical outlet next to the tree

 The grass farther down the yard

 This grass also burned.  The tree is several shadows down.

 Poor tree

Apparently the backyard neighbors (Malone's owners) were lighting off fireworks.  They have a boy named Mason who is 24 I think.  Mason and his friend were lighting off the fireworks.  One fell and shot over the fence and burned in our backyard.  Another firework at the same time shot into Mason's garage.  I am thankful that they tried to fix the problem.  They could have easily denied anything and just let our yard burn.  This could have been so much worse.  My kids could have been playing out there.  It could have hit our pool, the batting cage or the motorhome.  It was near to all three.  If it went a little farther and hit the big tree by our back window that tree would have gone in flames . . . along with our house.  Yes, it could have been so much worse.  We were lucky we were home and that we were upstairs.  The fire spread so fast! I am furious though.  There is a ban on fireworks.  They aren't even allowed until 3 days before the holidays.  Plus, I'm pretty sure they are banned this close to the mountain.  It wasn't even dark.  What were they doing setting these things off when it is so freaking hot outside!  I have never been a huge fan of fireworks.  Now I'm even more paranoid.

The fire department came and the police came.  Neighbors called them. A few different neighbors stopped by to see what was going on.  They had seen the smoke.  Plus, it wasn't long ago that the Rich's house burned.  Glad ours wasn't as bad as that!  The police issued the neighbors a fine.  It had to be at least over $500 because that is what the signs say the minimum fine for firework violations is.

Bubs and Ange came shortly after this happened, but before the fire trucks arrived.  We watched their kids so they could go to a fireside. Lots of chaos at that moment!  The firemen told Mike he needed to check on the tree & grass at least every hour to make sure something didn't start to burn again.  I took Maysen and Stockton to a fireside, but I kind of wish I stayed home.  I was still so agitated that it was hard to concentrate.  I left a little early, but we stayed there for a good hour.

What a crazy day.  I did not like it.  It is really scary to see how fast things burn, and to know that in a few days a whole bunch of people are going to be lighting things on flames.  I'm pretty sure some of them don't have any common sense.  I hope those guys don't live near us!