HOLY CRAP.

Well, today our house caught on fire. Yes, that's right. FIRE. Not flood, not vermin, but frickin' FIRE. Our g*damn SALTWATER FISHTANK caught on fire and exploded. Every square inch of our belongings in our house is covered with soot and smoke damage.. it looks like the 'Dante's Inferno' version of our house. Like the f**king TWILIGHT ZONE on crack. Almost like Pompeii.. everything was as we had left it, but covered in ash and soot.. not counting the actual fire damage itself in the family room. Here's how it happened (for posterity's sake at least):

I was at work Monday (I am writing this on the 1st of April, since I haven't had access to a computer for a while) when around 3:11 I got a call from Tricia saying the Mom (Cheryl) had gotten a 'fire alarm' alert from ADT. So she asked me to call to check it out, which I did.. ADT said the fire department had been sent out and that they did not think that it was a false alarm. A few minutes later we got another call saying the burglary alarm had gone off with a broken window - at that point I knew we were in trouble, assuming the firemen had broken a window to get inside.. but still not knowing the strue situation.

I called Tricia back and told her she had to get home NOW. (She was at Target with Sam). The next call I got I will never forget. It was Tricia out in the street infront of our home, screaming 'OUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE! - OH MY G*D - OUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE - COME HOME!".. I literally dropped everything and drove as fast as I could to get out to West Davie from Downtown Ft. Lauderdale (a good 15 minute drive WITHOUT traffic). I got there in about 11 minutes flat, and when I pulled up I couldnt believe what I saw - A fire truck, fire chief truck, ambulance and two police cars in front of MY HOUSE. Scooby Doo's cage was in our neighbor's driveway, and Trish and Sam were there too talking to a fireman. There were at least 5-6 emergency response type people (firemen, police, emt) on scene, and our front door was wide open, and our front side-light was broken open.

Like I started this entry - HOLY CRAP.

As I walked up, I snapped a few photos of the fire truck in front of the house, etc. - just to prove to myself that this wasnt a dream. As I would soon find out it was FAR from a dream, it was a NIGHTMARE.

I hugged Trish, and grabbed Sam and gave him a big hug as well. Scooby seemed ok, Trish told me he was still in the house when she got there and four big firemen dragged him and his whole cage out onto the lawn, and gave him some oxygen, because we didnt know how long he was in the smoke for. A fireman approached me and asked if I wanted to go in - Tricia still hadnt been in the house, and was trying to keep Sam away from it (due to the smoke and smell). I followed him in through the front door into something I never thought I'd see - my home which I had left only a few hours before (I had left the house around 7:30 am that day) - burned and covered with soot and smoke - residual water on our wood flooring.. part of our wall unit burned away - personal mementos and chachtkas scattered, burned and broken. Sam's Pooh menorah was in pieces all over the floor (it was on the sofa table that was up against the sidelight which they came in through).. his Elmo table had glass embedded in it from when the fishtank exploded and the hot glass fused with the plastic.. oh and the FISHTANK... looked to me like the fish (that's right - there was only ONE STINKIN' FISH in that tank.. we had tried to get rid of it at the garage sale a few weeks before.. if we had, none of this would have happened.) had been playing with high explosives and had decided to end it all.. there wasnt much left but the cabinet, which was badly burned, the thick glass was shattered and only the very bottom was still there. All the coral had fallen out the back when the plastic cover melted.

Up behind where the tank had been was a black plume of charred wall where the fire, at its greatest intensity, had burned all the way up to the 24 foot cieling. It must have been smoking for some time, because there was soot and ash and smoke in and on EVERYTHING in the house. The only room that was really spared was the garage. The damage UPSTAIRS was actually WORSE than downstairs where the fire actually happened.. because HEAT RISES. Every wall was charred, the heat so intense that the nails in the drywall heated and expanded, popping out of their holes. The carpet everywhere, especially the stairway was BLACKENED. Sam's room had a fine .25 inch layer of sooten ash over everything :( Our office and all the computers were coated - apparently the air handler was on the whole time and just pumped the soot around even worse.. our Master Bedroom and especially our closet was COATED with smoke and soot.

It was all I could do to stand there and blankly stare at all our belongings that way.. amazed that this had happened... especially to us..!

TO BE CONTINUED... (and click HERE to view the photos of the aftermath...)