911 FIRE!

So here's how the story goes. On Tuesday, it was beautiful out, so my daughter and I decided to walk down to the library and picnic at the park. We had a beautiful time and the weather was gorgeous. We had to hurry to get back home before the other came home from school - and it was all uphill. So - we were hustling - I was dragging the wagon. We were huffing and puffing up the hills, and barely made it home in time. Actually my youngest daughter beat me there (how she glibly runs up hills, I'm just not sure.) Additionally, we had super high winds that day, and so I was red faced, and a little disheveled due to the crazy whipping wind we'd been experiencing.

As I walked up the drive, my little one had already entered the house. She exited and said, "Mom, the house is on fire!" I questioned this in my mind and wasn't too concerned but quickly came inside. True - once inside, I could smell the unmistakable smell of something burning. Carrying the extinguisher, I went through the house, turned off all of the appliances, and tried to track down the offensive smell - to no avail. I called a friend who had a similar experience this winter, when due to a furnace malfunction, her house could have imploded. She said that there was a number you could call and they would just check it out - but it wasn't the bells, lights and whistles of the 911 deal. I called the number - told them I didn't think it was an emergency, I just wanted to see if they could come check it out (she told me they have a nifty machine that detects heat.)
Meanwhile, I straightened a few things up and we waited. Suddenly - I heard sirens coming up the street. Not only did we get the firetruck (yes the really big one), we also got the police and an ambulance. They all parked at the front and 6 fully decked out guys got out with all of their equipment etc. Yes, I was fairly chagrined.


They came in and asked us to please wait outside. They went through the entire house, and finally, they found the problem. I had isolated the smell mainly to the kitchen/living room area - and sure enough. One of the firemen came out of the house with a melted lid from a sour cream container that had been in the dishwasher. Apparently, while we had been out, the dishwasher had been going, and the lid had fallen on top of the dishwasher's heating element.

The firemen were very nice about it and said that they'd much rather that it was this than something else, but...
Yes, - I was fairly embarrassed - yes chagrined, AND embarrassed!




And yes - I only took these photos from a crack from the front door - I didn't want to be THAT obvious about it!