Fire!!

Early this morning, we lost our home to a fire. It started in our tenant's apartment and just took off from there. Luckily our tenant got out of her apartment just in time, and knocked on our door in time for us to get our family out. Thank god Mike stayed extremely calm because I was a wreck. Not in a crying and flipping out sort of way, but more in a shocked, didn't know how to respond sort of way. I was walking around in circles trying to think of what to grab, but my mind was blank. We left the house, piled in our truck -- at this point, Connor had no idea that our house was on fire -- and crossed the street. Connor was facing away from the house, fiddling in the back asking if our tenant's couch was ok, since he had overheard that that was what caught on fire. Meanwhile, I watched through my rear view mirror as flames violently burst through Carter's window and overtook our part of the house, just ten short minutes after Mike pulled Carter from his crib. 

I'm still in shock. I feel like reality has not set in yet. Every few minutes I'll think of something that we may never get back...baby blankets, ultrasound photos, kids art work etc and I break down. But then I remind myself that the outcome could have been much worse and we are lucky to all be here together. We will have to take it one day at a time.


Here is an article that was in the CBC news today:

Fire destroys Fredericton family's home

A fire caused extensive damage to a house in Fredericton's Lincoln Heights neighbourhood on Friday morning.

The fire started before 8 a.m. at a two-storey house and quickly spread up the exterior walls and into the eaves.

Fire officials say the fire started in a couch in a basement apartment.

Before firefighters arrived, the fire had already caused the basement windows to be blown out, the flames spread up the side of the house from the building's exterior and into the attic

A Friday morning fire destroyed a house in the Lincoln Heights area of Fredericton. (Daniel McHardie/CBC)

"The house was pretty much a write-off. The structure and the roof is pretty much destroyed," Capt. Art Van Horne said.

The family and the downstairs tenants got out safely and emergency workers were able to rescue many holiday presents from the flames.

Christmas gifts are brought out of a Fredericton house after the morning fire. (CBC)"What we're trying to do is avoid putting water in [the house's attic] until we get the contents out, obviously they have everything ready for Christmas," Van Horne said.

"So we want to get everything out of the house and into secured storage. And then we'll go in and put some water into the attic and get the fire knocked down."

Kendall Johnston, a witness to the fire, said the outcome of the fire could have been much worse.

"Everybody is OK. We'll get the [assistance] efforts going. Friends and family will step up," Johnston said.