House Fire

We are so blessed and are thanking God for his protection. Thursday morning about 4 am I heard a noise, which I knew was not the children, so I told George, "Go get that." He got up and yelled. I realized the noise was the smoke detector and I jumped out of bed. I saw the flames coming out of the wall and George grabbed the fire extinguisher and sprayed the fire. I closed Elizabeth's door because of the smoke. George's , Bob, jumped out of bed and came out to help. Then George yelled, "Grab the girls." I grabbed Lillian out of our bed and wrapped her in a blanket, because she was just in a diaper. I yelled to George to get Elizabeth. Bob asked George if he had another fire extinguisher. George ran to the garage with Elizabeth bouncing along with him. I grabbed the cell phone and went on the front lawn and called 911. Bob looked in the attic and could see smoke. George dropped Elizabeth with me and he went in the attic and could see flames, so he sprayed them. The girls and I went to the back of the garage where it is heated to keep warm. The fire department got there in about 10 min and pulled down the wall and ceiling and sprayed the rest of the fire out and the hot spots. The Ogemaw Fire Department was wonderful they got there quickly, covered the furniture, and pulled out my pictures from the closet. After the fire was out, we got the girls dressed and went to Grandma Harshman's house. It was about 6:30 by then. We waited a couple hours for daylight, the went back to grab some clothes and see the damage by daylight. The insurance company has been wonderful and we are now able to start repairs. Grandma Harshman is loving having us and the girls love being with Grandma Harshman. It was a scary time, but I know God had his hand over us protecting us. The battery in the smoke detector had died and we quickly replaced it, which is unusual because it seems we always forget to buy a new battery, but not this time. The fire was centrally located and only damaged the house and a few spare blankets. Most importantly we got out so quickly there were no injuries. Praise God!