Fire!

Friday evening we were sitting on the porch with a couple of friends eating smoked trout, fresh cheese curds and sipping Ketel One Martinis.

A storm was rolling-in and the lightening strikes all around us were pretty spectacular.

Anyway, we're sitting there chatting when I point out that there was a really bad smell in the air. Within moments everyone else notices it too.

I know this smell.

I will never forget this smell.

It is the smell of burning shingles, paint, carpeting, wiring, PVC and furnishings.

It is the pungent and nauseating smell of a house on fire.

In the high winds we cannot see smoke but the unmistakable smell tells us that the fire is somewhere to the south. Probably close.

Within moments the first fire engine speeds past and turns the corner heading south. This is followed by more apparatus, an ambulance and volunteer responders racing to the scene of the fire.

The vehicle above is a tanker shuttling water from a creek a couple of miles away.

It's a bitch to fight a fire this way - hauling your water.

Saturday morning we drove down the road to see what was up.

Sure enough - a mile south is a newer house completely burned. A total loss.

The suspected cause was lightening.