I’m so lucky to have heroes at every turn
There are some things we take for granted – and others that exceed expectations in life.
I have always been a careful kind of chap when it comes to fire, thanks to being brought up on my father’s stories. His home town in Exeter was devastated in the Second World War after being firebombed and those tales have stuck with me.
Lucky they did. Last week, I was in my house and I thought I could hear running water, so I went outside to see where the leak was, only to discover the complete opposite.
I was greeted by 12ft flames in my garden as my back fence had somehow caught fire in the sun. You can imagine my shock.
Although my heart took off, my head was quite calm as I dialled 999 – only to find out that four helpful neighbours had already called them.
I then started throwing water over the huge blaze, which had now lit my garden furniture and a couple of trees. Then more neighbours arrived to help. A few minutes later, the amazing firefighters pulled up and in no time had a hose out and were putting out the flames in time to save my garden shed properly going up as well.
After the drama was over, the lead fireman told me they were at a loss as to what could have started it. There was no obvious reason.
We are all guilty of trying to blame something or someone when things go wrong – the firefighter said the blaze could have started at mine or my neighbour’s. But it was probably just sunlight on some glass that magnified the rays.
The important thing is that no one was hurt, including my cats, and we are insured!
So hats off to my neighbours and the firefighters as between them they averted what could have been far worse.
As ever, they are the unsung heroes in life and they exceeded my expectations. I hope you too will be that hero for others if ever the opportunity arises as it is sometimes too easy to walk on by and let it be someone else’s problem. Until next week Kev
I dialled 999 only to find four helpful neighbours had already called them