Sometimes your luck just seems to run out. At least luck did not seem to be on our side last night, or the universe was playing a cruel trick on my family. Either way, Halloween night in the Reseburg household was one to remember.
I spent Friday night and Saturday afternoon in Beloit so Betty could visit relatives in her dog costume. It was a long weekend and I was really looking forward to getting home, getting caught up on some work, and getting some sleep before a shoot today.
At approximately 11:45 I was gearing up for bed, having already put on a tank top and jammie pants for a nice night of rest (my wardrobe will become relevant soon).
Jon, my husband, had spent the weekend finishing up our new basement theatre. This project had taken us 6 months or so to complete and the final stage involved installing the projector on the ceiling and mounting the huge screen to the basement wall. He had finished and was quite proud of himself for completeing the install. He was gearing up to watch his first movie on the new theatre screen.
I was just answering a client email and was ready to turn off the computer and head to bed when a resounding CRASH shook the whole house. It sounded like a very large and heavy piece of furniture had fallen over. This crash was followed by a loud hissssssssss. The funny thing is I couldn't quite place where the sound was originating from. I ran down to the basement yelling "What WAS that!". My first thought was the newly installed projector had somehow dislodged from the ceiling and come crashing to the floor.
But no, everything was in place...and my husband was just as incredulous as I. I ran back upstairs and out our front window saw our neighbor, whom we have never actually met, pounding on our window. "Get out of the house! Get out of the house!". I didn't really have time to think about why...but it soon became apparent when the heavy smell of gas was detected. I ran, grabbed Betty from her sleep, and booked outside in my tanktop and jammie pants.
Our neighbor's young son, who had just received his driver's license, had slammed his car into the side of our home...knocking the gas meter clear off the home. Acrid smelling gas was now filling not only the outside but our home as well. The hissing was loud and this was no small leak, it was a deluge.
Jon frantically dialed 911 as I ran out into the street in front of my home and shivered with Betty, who was now wide awake and a bit bewildered. All I kept thinking was "one spark and my house is going to explode".
About 5 minutes later two fire trucks pulled up, closing off our end of the street and unraveled their hoses aiming them directly at the house in case the one single spark needed to ignite my home happened.
I just couldn't help but thing all I had in the home: my work, my camera equipment, all of Betty's things...all my memories of my Grandmother...everything hanging by the hope that nothing would ignite.
Thankfully our other neighbors awoke and opened their home to Betty and I as we waited for the gas company to come and shut the gas off. An hour passed, and nothing. Unsure if anything inside the home (in the walls) was broken they could only temporarily cap the hose. By this time, according to the fire department, the gas levels in our home were at explosion level and they worked to shut off all electricity and started the process of airing out the house. One firefighter went in to retrieve our cat who was cowering under our bed.
We stood helpless, not really sure what was going to happen.
The massive leak capped but our home still uninhabitable, we ended up having to go to a nearby hotel at about 2 AM to sleep a few hours before returning the next day to a home with no gas service....meaning no heat. We had to hire a plumber to make sure the pipes inside were not damaged and here's the kicker: in order to access the pipes a hole had to be cut into our brand new, just finished, drywalled ceiling. In addition, because the temperature in the house dipped so severely last night a crack developed in our living room ceiling, along with some nice water damage.
It's now 24 hours later....our gas line has been restored and heat brought back to the home. I don't think I've experienced anything that scary in quite some time. I just kept thinking about that old question: if your house is on fire, what would you grab? Honestly...you wouldn't have time to grab anything but your family. I thought of maybe grabbing the box holding all of my grandma's things just in case something ignited the gas, but everything happened so quickly.
It was most definitely an experience...one I do not want to soon relive.
On the plus side, Betty seems to have enjoyed our little adventure. She got to see firetrucks (she calls them "bad boys"...they have lights, and she's a COPS fan). She got to be up past her bedtime, and she got to share a big, fluffy hotel bed with her mother....who got no sleep. All in all, I'm thankful BEYOND thankful our house was not blown up. And I'm starting to think 16 is too young for a driver's license!
And, because this post is naked without some sort of picture, here's Betty earlier that wild night in her puppy costume!
