The Fire Part one

 During the real first hot spell of weather we had and prior to us going away to Woodhall Spa again we had an incident with the next door neighbours.  They have been regular users of having a barbecue and we believe that they had one and put the barbecue away hot.  It was purely by chance I found the fire.  We were upstairs watching a TV programme and I kept hear hearing this crackling sound.  So I went downstairs to check as it sounded as though the next door neighbour was watering up and had left the hose pipe on.  When I got downstairs I could not see anything (I had been worried that he had collapsed in the garden and left the hose pipe running which has happened before).  I popped my head around the bottom of the house only to see the fence inbetween used and next door.  There was hardly any shed left next door by this time and I have never seen a fence go up so quickly.  I screamed for OH to call the fire brigade.  We are very lucky that the house did not go up as well.

Here are some photos of the damage sustained.  This is photo heavy.

Then we had to wait for the clear-up.  We  had to wait for a couple of days for someone to come out and assess how long it would take to clear the site. He said in a couple of days.  In reality it could have done with a week. I was told under no circumstances to touch anything.  The freezers were left for a week and in the end we had to clear them because we were left  between the devil and the deep blue sea on health and safety ground and because there was no movement from either side we ended up dealing with the food.  After that we got some movement.

But that part of the story is for another day.  Things are never as straightforward as they seem!

Continue tomorrow.

Pattypan

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