Fire Across the Valley and Ramifications for All of Us
Watching Smoke
Our dining room window looks across the valley we live in, so we see a lot of our town, Silver City, New Mexico. It's a pleasant town, high enough in elevation to be only moderately hot in the summer.
As we sat having lunch yesterday, we noticed smoke rising from a spot in a residential area maybe two miles west of our house. The wind was blowing to the north. The smoke cloud got larger, then smaller but by an hour later it was huge. After lunch I phoned some neighbors who tend to know everything that's going on, but in this case they didn't.
So I went online to a couple of local Facebook groups, and there was a photo of the smoke rising that someone had posted from closer than where we were. I kept a tab in my browser open there. I gradually learned from others on Facebook that it was an electrical fire that took out an entire house but no people. The sister and the best friend of the man whose house burned kept the rest of us updated. I don't know him.
Over the next few hours, from our windows we could see the smoke gradually getting smaller and we could see the flashing lights of emergency vehicles near the fire. Never did see any flames, but you know the old saying :"Where there's smoke there's fire."
Ramifications
[1] Immediately Related
During all that, I got to wondering if we had enough fire extinguishers in our house and if they are still current. I didn't see dates on our large one in the kitchen but the pointer was in the green so it was good. The one in our home office expired in 2015 (yikes) and the one in our bedroom is a year out of date. Plus, it's on my side of the bed but Kelly moves way faster than I do. A new one should be on his side and we can leave that year-old one where it is. We could use a couple more for other parts of the house too. So some shopping is called for. I would imagine that most people in town won't have thought of that.
What about you? Do you have enough fire extinguishers, are they current enough, and do you know how to use them?
[2] Bigger Picture
Today I'm uploading quite a few of my files to our Dropbox account and I'm making sure it's currently paid up well in advance and that I have the password on the USB drive I keep in my purse and also that my stepdaughter who lives far away also has it. I shoulda done most of this when my computer conked out a while ago, but <blush> I don't think I got around to all of it after my computer started working again.
Any big picture things on your mind?
Recent Comments
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At some point I need to treat the brickwork with that water repellant stuff, maybe it will keep the damp at bay during the winter months. I say it every year.
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You make a valid point, Rosana! That could be any one of us!
Jeff