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Wednesday, May 28, 2008

I'm alive and behind

Sorry folks. I apparently decided to drop off the face of the earth for a few days!
Anyways we went to my parents for the holiday. That was an experience. No my mom was not crazy as she usually is but we had a bit of drama.

We were about 30 minutes away from my parents when my mom called my cell. I figured she was calling to complain that she was cooking dinner.

Nope.

She was crying and obviously shaken. "We had a fire, " she said. "Oh my GOD! Are you okay? What happened?" I asked.
Well apparently my dad had been on the deck and he had just gotten a new propane tank filled. Well he wanted to get the grill cleaned off and going so that we could cook out that night.
So he lit 2 burners and turned them on low. Well for some reason the flames were just not responding so he pulled the tank out slightly and shook it a little to release air (Note to self: NEVER do that!).
Well when he shook it something happened. We are still unsure as to what.
But the tank acted as a blow torch and created a fireball. My dad yelled for my mom to call 911 and he grabbed the fire extinguisher.
Somehow all of their neighbors found out and all came running with fire extinguishers. My dad remained on the deck and was burned. My parents have a large (10 foot) glass slider that exploded into their eating area.
Their deck is ruined, the downstairs area was full of smoke, and my dad was burned. From a stupid grill.
So we got to the house as quickly as we could and I ended up following the ambulance that had my dad to the ER.
Bud stayed to help assess the damage.
My dad suffered 1st degree burns to his legs, arms and face. He had a few second degree burns on his hands.
It could have been SO much worse.

Bud later called me and said that they had cleaned the glass up from the door and placed plywood over the opening to protect the house until the insurance company showed up.
they have a fire cleaning crew there now. It will take a long time to clean up. Of course it doesn't help that my parents house is huge (almost 5000 square feet) and my mom has knick knacks everywhere.
And there is ash EVERYWHERE.

Needless to say it was an eye opening weekend. I am so glad my parents are okay. the house stuff can be replaced. They can't.
We know of a house up there that had a propane tank explode (no one was home) and the entire house was gone. Just exploded.
So please for all of you - never allow the little ones ANYWHERE near the grill when lit. They are just so unsafe. It gives me chills to think of Bean being on the deck when that thing exploded.




I do have some good news in light of all of this.

We are listing our house. Yep next week. We worked on a few details this past weekend. So say some good thoughts for me! I hope that bad boy sells.

11 comments:

Amanda Fullerton said...

Oh my goodness! I am so glad that the situation wasn't any worse! I hope your dad's burns heal quickly.

Yay for listing the house!

Lori said...

wow that is terrible, glad no one was seriously hurt (hope your dad heals quickly)

hope things work out with selling your house

Danielle said...

Wow! I am so sorry to hear...and glad no one was seriously hurt. I will def. keep this in mind this summer.

Unknown said...

That is so scary! I'll mention this to my husband and ask him not to ever repeat that situation. We NEVER let our kids outside when we're grilling and 5 years ago we moved our grill from our deck to a rocky area outside our garage. I hope your dad recovers very soon from his burns!

I hope your house sells quickly!! Does that mean Bud's employer met his price? I hope so!

Someone Being Me said...

Wow. That is so freaky. I am glad they were ok and the house is not badly damaged. My sister burned up my parents kitchen once when she thought she turned off the burner but she had accidentally turned it on High with a pan of grease on it. Scary.

Anglophile Football Fanatic said...

Oh, thank God they are okay. Is your dad out of the hospital? How scary.

And, congrats on house listing.

KG said...

How bizarre! That sucks ass - I'm glad your dad is ok. I guess there's a reason that they always tell you not to grill stuff on a deck - but come ON - it's such a perfect place to grill. A fireball? I would have totally freaked out. I hope he continues to do better!

CanadianMama said...

I'm so glad they are ok and congrats on the house situation - keeping my fingers crossed for you!

Anonymous said...

How absolutely terrifying! You're right, it could have been so much worse!!!! Glad your dad is in a bit of pain, but otherwise ok.

Wineplz said...

oh scary! wow! I'm glad that your dad is ok and that the damage was minimal (my neighbors have been displaced from a deck fire for the past month and won't be back for about 3 more). Sounds like the next grill your parents will be investing in will be a safe ol' Weber charcoal grill (food tastes better anyways!).

and congrats on listing the house!

Melissa said...

oh my gosh! how scary! Thanks goodness it wasn't any worse. And Thank goodness for all of their good neighbors