Sirens and flashing lights - I don't want to see anymore

Kelsy and I were just driving home from the Chonda Pierce show in Lakeland and there they were again - flashing lights. I've seen flashing lights and heard sirens each day since Friday nite. I only notice because.....well, this is the story:

Friday nite/Saturday morning (it's still dark so I call it "night")
Devin gets off the computer and comes to bed just before 4am. He lays down and says, "Is that a knock at the door?" I don't know, don't care, I want to sleep or I'll have a panic attack. My self-talk continued as Devin jumped out of bed realizing someone was really at the door. Just go back to sleep Kel or you'll have a panic attack. Devin has everything under control, go to sleep. I hear him walk away from the front door, leaving it open, he walks to the boys' room, flips on their light and says, "Get up boys. You may never see anything like this again...I hope." OK. I'm awake. I get to the foyer with the front door wide open and I don't even focus on the 5 people standing at my front door. My eyes are drawn to the orange glow across the street. Utter shock. A house on the next street was in flames. I was speechless. I wanted to cry.

I changed clothes and marched right across the street to where my neighbors were standing. The neighbors whose backyard this fire was in. Turns out the three of them were sleeping on the backporch like a camping nite and she woke up startled and realized the house behind them had flames coming from the top of the roof. She woke up the others and they heard an explosion and the fire grew. She called 911 and then woke up her two nextdoor neighbors who are disabled and would need more time to evacuate if it came to that.

At our front door was Leith and Shannon. We'd have missed the whole thing if they hadn't come over. Shannon being 7 months pregnant isn't sleeping well and woke to the sound and feel of the firetrucks rolling in. She looked out her window and saw orange in the direction of our house. They hurried over to be sure it wasn't us. The house that burned is in the direct line from Brown house to Brown house on the street between our two.

We watched between the houses across the street as the firefighters worked. We saw part of the roof fall off to the side of the house. When the flames were nearly out, we walked the kids over to see the firetrucks. There were at least nine emergency vehicles with lights rolling. It was blinding and nauseating to me. Devin talked to a neighbor and heard that neither of the owners were home and the dog was staying at a friend's. Praise God no one was hurt.

Their house is a shell. The roof completely gone - no remnants even in the house. No evidence of any furniture. Amazing. And this all took about 45 minutes.

Aura Hall (from KABC) lives across the street from this house and they slept through the whole thing. Including their two dogs. I can vouch that even with a massive fire and several firetrucks, it was VERY quiet. Odd.

More details from Aura say that the Mrs. was in Georgia for her grandson's graduation. Upon hearing her house had burned, she had heart issues and was admitted to a hospital for observation. Her husband was in Miami and got here late Saturday morning, stood in the front yard and cried. Both are being put up in a hotel in Brandon by the Red Cross. As for community help, we have a neighborhood garage sale scheduled for June 14 to help raise money. Insurance likely will cover all but that all takes time.

More flashing lights? Yes, I went to the barn late Saturday nite to take care of my horse. I turned onto the street and all the lights were out. In Lithia, it gets REALLY dark. Most of the houses have lights on poles to shed some light onto their property...and maybe keep away wildlife. The flashing lights this time were from FOUR TECO trucks who were trying to decide what to do with the LIVE line that had hit the ground. There were marks in the road from where the line had hit. Crazy. Without light at the barn, it is hard to move around safely. Connor offered his GameBoy light. Gotta say, a DS gives off a nice glow and I was able to wrap the horse's legs and clean his stall a bit.

Sunday. Heading to Kelsy's house. Great. Police lights and flares. MLK was shut down, and there was a body in the road.

By Sunday, I was tired of the flashing lights thing. But they've been around me every day since. Nothing eventful in my life, praise God. And I do thank these service people for the work they do. My uncle's career was as a fireman, I've had friends who are detectives and sheriffs, and another friend who was a paramedic and now a CSI. I respect their positions. I'm just tired of the flashing lights being so very present and near me!