House Fire

A house located just down our street burned down this morning. I looked out the kitchen window as I was getting a drink of water and noticed the rising smoke. Hopping in the car, I drove closer to have a look. I took the photo below from inside the car looking north. Both links above to the Bismarck Tribune and to KFYR-TV have video reports.

Even now the fire was going pretty strong. The only emergency vehicles that had arrived at this point were two ambulances and a sheriff's car. Within minutes a whole bunch of rural fire department trucks and vehicles showed up.

This photo above is from the KFYR-TV story. We walked past tonight and the house is obviously a total loss. The fire started in the basement. The roof is entirely gone. There were some kids in the house and all got out without injury.

We've never had so much traffic, even yet this evening, in our little development - lots of people driving by to take a look. Of course, it was worse in the morning when the smoke was pretty much visible from most of Bismarck.

Just remember, it doesn't take long for a house to get fully involved like this. Keep your smoke alarms operational. If you don't have any, get enough to properly cover your home.

With our basement remodel I spent quite a bit on smoke alarms for the whole house. We got new units for the basement and replaced ours upstairs, all with wirelessly connected alarms. If one goes off they all do. I figure that way we'll know if one goes off downstairs where the boys are sleeping and vise versa. It will be worth it if a life is saved someday!