Neighborhood Tragedy

It was a heart wrenching weekend in our subdivision Saturday. I was fixing dinner at approximately 4:00 pm when I heard sirens up close and personal. Husband was out running some errands, so I thought perhaps he had been accosted for making a turn without indicating (he’s been known to do this on occasion).  

When I went outside the door to have a look, a police officer was setting up traffic cones to prohibit travel on our street.  This was just to the east of our home.

As I approached the street I saw the neighbor’s house across the street  and two doors down fully engulfed in flames. The police were there in force setting up perimeters, the emergency medical personal, but the fire department (all volunteer, mind you) had not yet arrived. We could hear the sirens wailing in the distance.

I went back into the house, turned off the stove and joined my neighbors.  Two doors down, our neighbor had the mother and two children in her home. So many tears and so much sorrow as the mother watched her home being consumed by flame. The young daughter’s concern was pets left inside the home… but the family, the mother and children were safely outside the burning home.

The firefighters arrived and began in earnest their attempt to extinguish the blazing home. A hydrant was close at hand and they hooked up and began to hose down the exterior and the garage that was open and spewing flames as if it were a dragon’s lair.

Where the fire damaged the roof

Once some ground had been gained, several firefighters climbed to the roof and began the arduous task of inspecting it for ‘hot spots’ each of them using a long pole.  After they climbed back down, portions of the roof burst into flames. Next we heard a horrific explosion and the vehicle parked in the driveway burst into flame.

Our street was awash with not only the emergency responders, but the” lookie-loos” who come to watch the unfolding tragedy. Those, the curious, the sight seers.

The garage, where it appears the fire started

The father showed up and approached his wife asking for clarification on “how could this happen?”  All in all, it was an unpleasant exchange and my heart broke for this wife in the anger the husband expressed over the happening situation. 

Lea from My Letters to Emily wrote of her state’s devastating tornadoes from this past week. She pondered the ago old question of “why”…  Why, indeed.

It is always amazing to watch, see and hear a person’s response to tragedy and the “why” of it all.

The vehicle that was destroyed

Please pray for this family as they are brought to mind. Pray they are able to recover and that this tragedy does not destroy their family unit.

 Simply yours,

Tamara

II Corinthians 1:3-5The Message 

The Rescue

^3-5 All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too.