Hannah Calls 911

I’m not panicky, you know? I don’t worry about little stuff.

So when I call 911, I mean it. (Actually, I’ve never called before today. So.)

I was folding laundry and watching a movie and smelling smoke. And I just thought, “Gr. My neighbors are smoking something weird.”

But when I walked into my living room and could actually SEE smoke, I kind of realized that even they couldn’t smoke that much.

So I went downstairs to the foyer/laundry room that is on my neighbors’ level of the house. And the foyer was filled with smoke. This is where I panicked.

Did I call 911? No. I called my husband. Obviously.

And he told me to call 911.

The emergency lady was very nice and calm. She asked my address and my phone number and my name. And told me to get out of the house. OK, that part? Not so calm.

So here is the dilemma we all theorize about: “If your house were on fire, what would you grab?” I don’t have to guess. I know.

1.) Both laptops
2.) The iPad
3.) My purse
4.) The external hard drive (full of family pictures)
5.) Mee-Mee and the ‘Lankies (my kids’ lovies)

Oh. And the dog. I grabbed the dog.

I put my basket full of the important things in life (except the dog) in the back of the Jeep. That way if the “fire” turned out to be something silly, I wouldn’t be embarrassed by having my treasured possessions unnecessarily clutched to my chest.

And then I knocked on my downstairs neighbors’ door. Just to see if maybe they WERE smoking something. No answer. Which kind of freaked me out with visions of them dying from smoke inhalation in there.

The fire department arrived about this time. Two big fire trucks, complete with sirens. And there were firemen crawling all over the place. Firemen in my laundry room. Firemen in my house. Firemen in my neighbors’ house (they didn’t answer the door to me, but they sure did for the fireman!). Firemen in the crawl space under the house.

And do you know what the firemen determined? The washing machine’s motor burnt out.

They said, “Whoever was doing laundry in here, I think it’s done.” Yes. I had the fire department out to tell me that my laundry was finished.

But they were super nice. They didn’t think I was an idiot. The guys that had arrived first told another fireman that the room had been filled with smoke when they came (meaning I wasn’t crazy). And they assured me that it was better safe than sorry. And that it could have caught the laundry on fire and then moved on to the wall (again, I wasn’t crazy).

They did, however, laugh at me for taking a picture of them. But hey. You don’t have the fire department out every day.

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6 thoughts on “Hannah Calls 911

  1. Tina says:

    Awww Hannah, I am sooooo glad it was only the washing machine… and at the same time very sorry that the washer is gone. You are welcome to bring your laundry over to my house and I will check with my awesome neighbor to see if she knows of anyone with a working washer.

    Praise God that is all it was, sorry for the frightful day ;)

    God bless,
    Tina

    • Hannah says:

      Thanks so much for the offer! I appreciate it.

      The washing machine is actually a coin one owned by the landlord. So he said he’s got someone coming by to look at it tomorrow!

      So hopefully I won’t be without for too long.

  2. sharon says:

    Hannah – I love reading your adventures. I think you need to write a book called “Hannah’s Stay at Home Adventures”. I’ll buy it!

  3. Katherine says:

    I agree with Sharon. Your adventures are always fun to read. I would buy a book of them too.

    Lol! Glad everything was alright!

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