5.24.11.

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011
Time: 11pm

**THIS IS A TRUE STORY**

      I was about to fall asleep, all comfortable and sleepy. As soon as I close my eyes, I hear a cry from my stairs.
      It was my sister.
      "Alexis! Get up! We have to get out of the house!!!"
      I was all confused. "What?!" I grabbed my phone and followed her upstairs.
      As we headed for the front door, she said, "Our neighbor's garage is on fire!"
      I was in complete shock. Once we got to the door, a cop was standing outside. "We need to evacuate everyone in the house immediately." He said to us.
      I put on my shoes and walked out with my sister and her friend behind. Suddenly, I felt intense heat, and when I looked over, I saw it.
      A huge, bright flame engulfed our neighbor's garage. It was hard to believe, but it was happening.
      We walked to the other side of the street, noticing only a few cop cars around us. The same officer from the door said, "The firemen should be coming shorty."
      We all stood in fear as we watched the wild fire destroy the garage. Next to it, on our property, we have a small-ish pool house where we keep a bunch of pool things and some storage boxes. As we waited, we noticed the fire spreading, and eventually, it got to a part of the roof of the pool house. I pulled out my cell phone and took a picture of what was going on.
      "Oh my god!!" My sister screamed with tears, "The pool house is on fire too!"
      I was completely still, watching all this all at once. This was completely unbelievable. I almost thought this was a nightmare. But no...it wasn't.
      The firetrucks finally arrived, along with a paramedic just in case. The flame has already burnt a part of the pool house for a little while, but it didn't seem like much damage was done yet. Immediately, they began to hose down the flame. They manage to get it under control, which made the neighborhood seem pretty good about things.
      As time when on, neighbors began to come out and stand around, watching these brave firefighters get rid of this demon blaze. It soon began to grow smaller and smaller, and the pool house was put out quickly to save what was left. The garage was already gone.
      By the time the flame was unnoticeable, it was just tons of smoke. The same officer came back to us. "It's safe to go back inside now. We got it under control."
      We were all in relief. We went back inside for a while until my sister began paranoid and went back outside with her friend. I stayed inside for a bit to get a closer view of the pool house inspection.
      They broke all the windows, used flashlights to check for small fires or sparks, and mainly sprayed everything inside just to be safe.
      When I went back outside, my sister and her friend were in the pool area, watching the firemen inspect the rubbish from the garage. We were all devastated from all the destruction. So were the neighbors, of course.
      It was now around 1am, and it was getting late. The officer said, "It's getting late. You girls need your sleep. Go inside, lock the house up, and get to bed. No one should disturb you tonight."
      We did as we were told. We were calm now that everything was pretty much over. We were thankful that no one got hurt and that our house or or neighbor's house didn't catch on fire. Although there will be damages to repair, at least we're okay.