Where There's Smoke ...

THERE'S FIRE!: The day started normally enough - the kids had a play date with their favorite preschool pal, Connor. We started up at Bay View Park, and then came back to our house for awhile.

Before too long, the kids were showing each other their favorite funny videos on YouTube. I couldn't help but wonder, is that what many 5-7 year olds do now? Definitely a sign of these Internet-driven times.

When Connor and his mom left, I noticed a big yellow Seattle City Light utility truck parked on our street. A worker was doing something with some cables over the house on the corner (two doors to our north).

I went back down to our house and eldest son Rick stopped by. Soon after I told him, "I smell smoke. Something's burning." I hustled around the house, sticking my head out a window to the alley, where I smelled it, and then out the kids' bedroom window, where I really smelled it.

Immediately after I said that, we heard the sirens start to wail in the distance. They got closer. And closer. And closer.

We headed outside, up the stairs to the road and as we hit the sidewalk, we saw the first engine arrive and park two houses down from us. Another engine rolled up and then another, plus a couple medic trucks.

Man, those firefighters wasted no time in getting the hoses unrolled and hooked up to a hydrant. They were up on the burning home's roof within a minute of arriving, I'd guess.

Mercifully no flames were in view, but smoke was pouring out of the roof in the southeast corner of their home's first level. Right where a weatherhead with an electrical cable was located ... In the photo at the right, the firefighters are getting ready to cut into the roof.

Before long, Annabelle started expressing concern over whether or not anyone was in the house (no one was) and what about pets - don't they have pets (they do).

I told her that smoke rises and since the fire was in the ceiling/rafter area, the pets on the first floor were probably just fine (I hope that's true).

The firefighters (left) cut one small section of the roof out at a time and doused the area.

I think it was a "good" (that seems like the wrong word given a neighbor's house was on fire) experience for the kids to be able to see the firefighters go about their work in such a quick, methodical and effective manner. And hopefully next time we work on fire drills, they'll remember what we saw today and have an increased awareness that house fires sometimes hit very close to home and they'll pay even closer attention than ever.

Though the fire appeared to be completely under control, emergency vehicles kept appearing. There was even a firetruck in our alley at one point.

On the sidewalk in front of our house, the fire department set up a comfort station (for lack of a better term) on a table. It had a big cooler full of water and cups for the firefighters. I've never had such a front row view to a firefight before, so I hadn't thought about having such a thing, but it certainly made sense. It actually topped 80 today and those firefighters had all that heavy gear on. I could see where they'd get dehydrated very quickly if they weren't careful.

Once things settled down 'round our neighborhood, we headed to Magnolia Village to run a couple of errands. While we were near the fire station in the village, one of the trucks from our neighbor's fire returned to the station.

BERRY GOOD: When we headed down the alley to visit our new neighbor's place for the first time (Rick rented an apartment just down the street!), we noticed that amongst the green blackberries there were a few truly black berries! The kids scooped 'em right up, and we are looking forward to lots and lots more where that came from.

IN MEMORY: For this afternoon bike ride/jog, we headed down to Fisherman's Terminal. I'd watched "The Deadliest Catch" last night, and it was the episode where Captain Phil Harris, 56, died after suffering a couple of massive strokes.

Capt. Harris was one of the show's stars who keeps his boat here at the foot of our hill. I had a feeling that there would be some tributes to Phil at the permanent memorial at the Terminal, and I was right, there were.

In much happier news, we also noted several new, welcome additions to Fisherman's Terminal - educational/informative signs about the type of fish and other creatures that fishermen who work out of the terminal go chasing/catching.

There were also signs about the types of vessels on site and the history of the terminal.
LEGOMANIACS: I found out today that kids can get a free subscription to LEGO magazine. You know I was all over that!