It was a hot day yesterday at 30C, but a little cooler than
the 35C it was the day before. What made
it worse was the 60% humidity, which made me feel like I was melting. Sweat was pouring off me like I was doing a
workout in the gym, but I was sitting still.
I do not tolerate heat very well, I never really have, so I don’t
understand people vacationing in Phoenix where it was 120F.
As a result, Toby and I after the morning walk, went up and
relaxed in the bedroom in front of the portable air conditioner that I
thankfully purchased. It’s too bad I can’t
get air conditioning for the whole house, but there is a limit on what you are
allowed in a strata-complex. This unit
is the most powerful one I can get at 14,000 BTU and it only cools the
bedroom. If I leave the door open, none
of the cool air reaches the rest of the floor.
I give this preamble because, little did I know, it was
about to get hotter. It got hotter
partly because I did my Mom’s baked Rice Krispy Chicken, so running an oven on
a hot day, sort of adds to it.
Unfortunately, there is no way to do it on the BBQ. Anyway, it turned out delicious and after
dinner, we did our usual evening stroll.
It felt like the temperature outside had cooled slightly and we did our
usual route.
I had planned on watching the BC Lions vs Calgary game in
the bedroom, but I skipped the opening kickoff to do the walk. While we were out, I heard someone yell from
one of the units, “yeah, 95 yards”. When
we got back, I bee lined for the bedroom.
The Lions were leading 13-3 and yes, they had taken the opening kickoff
back 95 yards for the touchdown. Oh,
well, I’d catch the highlights at halftime.
The Lions increased their lead and then the phone rang. I figured Renee would answer, but when I
looked at the call display, I saw that it was her cell. She told me that she could hear an alarm and
she was going to go look. A few minutes
later she called back and said it was the neighbours and I should come
help. So I grabbed my shirt and headed
out with the Lions in a comfortable lead late in the second quarter.
I found Renee and we went looking and determined the smoke
alarm was coming from a house a few doors down.
I started walking around the place and was getting a strong smell of
smoke. We didn’t try the doors at
all. But Renee was ringing the bell and
pounding on the door, but there was no answer.
After a few minutes, we were certain that we could smell smoke and so Renee
called 9-1-1.
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| ONE RIG |
A few minutes later the Maple Ridge Fire Department arrived
with two rigs. They immediately started unpacking
gear and hoses, because they could smell the smoke before they even got the
rigs parked. The Captain walked up to
the door and was inside before I knew it.
I guess the door was unlocked, because he had no tools in his hand and
there was no damage to the door.
 |
| TWO RIGS |
While the crew was still inside, the family arrived home and
was shocked to see a big hose snaking into their house through the front
door. The little girl, Sarah, who is a
neighbourhood favourite was heartbroken and sobbing because her cat was
inside. She was inconsolable until one
of the fire guys came out and pronounced the fire out and the cat safe.
Apparently, someone left something cooking on the gas stove
and went out to get some further ingredients from the store. That turned out not to be such a good
plan. It caught fire and was starting to
spread when the fire guys got inside.
They filled the brand new gas stove with foam, but thankfully the fire
did not spread to the point of setting off the sprinklers, or there would have
been much, much more damage.
Even though our smoke alarms seem to be very sensitive and
they go off so often, Renee still checks.
She has not succumbed to the “cry wolf syndrome” and in this case, it
really was a fire. Her actions saved not
only the one townhouse, but maybe the whole block of six units. In this heat, if the whole block had gone up,
it would have easily spread to our building and so on. She’s the heroine of our little village.
After an exciting show, I went back inside to resume the
football game. What was looking like a
blowout was anything but. Calgary had
come back and was only two points behind.
No problem though, the Lions increased their lead again and were 15
points up late in the game. Unfortunately,
Calgary came back and tied the game with one-minute left. Sadly, they went into overtime and Calgary
got a field goal to lead by three. The
Lions got all the way down to the 10-yard line, but Calgary sealed their win
with an interception in the end zone.
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