This is not a quilty post, and before I get into the prayer request, I want to give you a bit of background.
Before DH was born, his parents had three daughters. When the oldest was three, the second was two and the baby nine months, they had a horrible house fire. The youngest two perished in that house fire. His mom was only able to get the oldest one out. They were living in a single wide mobile home at the time, which were not up to today's safety standards. It was a tragedy that still affects the family today.
When my children were young, about the ages that DH's sisters were when they passed away, we had not one, not two, but THREE fire scares. All of those happened in Moberly, Missouri, where DH was an Army Recruiter. The first scare was right after we moved there, and some neighbor kids set our garage on fire. I called the fire department, and thankfully they got the fire out before it spread to the house we were renting.
The second was an electrical fire. The house were were renting had been built in the 1920's, and the electrical system had never been updated. One evening while I was feeding the kids dinner, a shower of sparks came out of the light switch in the dining room, and I watched a black line go up the wall as the fire spread up the wires. I called the fire department again, and got the kids out. My landlord was required to update all the electrical in the house after the fire department evaluated the house for safety.
The third close call was a gas leak in our oven, that caused the entire oven to fill with a ball of fire, and shoot out the vents on top of the range. We managed to deal with that emergency ourselves, and bought a new stove.
All of those close calls were made more frightening by the thoughts of the family history. That same family history also made us more thankful, that we didn't have another tragedy.
Fast forward to this year. On the fourth of July, DH and I were on our way to Sedona for vacation, when his mom calls and tells us his younger sister's house is on fire. Six people live in that house, my BIL and SIL, their oldest son, their youngest daughter with her husband and baby. Also at the house at the time was another of my SIL grandchilden, a toddler. At the time, we had no idea how bad it was, we only knew they got the people out, which given the family history, was especially a relief.
We got various reports throughout the day, and some information we got originally was incorrect. Even the news got some if it wrong.
The fire was started by a BBQ grill, and it was a malfunction. The propane tank on the grill exploded and accelerated the fire. Not only my BIL was burned, but my SIL was too as they tried to extinguish the fire. My BIL has burns on his arm and hands, my SIL on her arm and face. Thankfully they will be fine. Between the adults there, they got the baby and toddler out of the house and my niece sat in her car with the kids while watching their house burn down. It was over 100 degrees already, even though the fire occurred in the morning.
The news article mentioned they had five dogs, and they thought the dogs had gotten out of the house, but unfortunately, they all perished in the fire.
We are so thankful that the human lives were spared, and we know how devastating it is when they aren't. Of course we all wish the dogs had been spared too. The fire took hold so quickly it's really amazing that the people all survived.
If you click on the link above, you can see a pic of what the house looks like now, they lost everything. They do have homeowners insurance, but it won't cover all that was lost, and expenses are already racking up. They even had to pay to have fencing put around the burned out shell for safety reasons. If you'd like to donate, thank you, but most of all they can use prayer.
Even for DH, the sting is more, because he almost lost another sister to fire. His mom almost lost another daughter, a grandaughter, a great granddaughter. The two kids at the house are not far off the ages of DH's sisters when they died. We are so thankful that the people are OK, or at least will be, but the emotional toll is real.
My BIL and SIL escaped with their lives and the clothes on their backs. My niece and her family were leaving for vacation that day and had already put their suitcases in the car, so at least they have a little, and my nephew was already on vacation so he at least has what was with him.
We are praying for all of them, and I'd love it of some of you would join us in that. We are so thankful there are not funerals to plan this time, and for that we praise God!
As for me, I'll be working on replacing the quilts that were burned up in the fire. It's not much, but as a quilter, it's what I do.
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