Diana's World: May 2011

A week ago today I loaded up all the kids to head down to our home in ammon to do some yard clean up for FHE. I also thought I would try and get a head of the moving game and pack up the back of the truck and unpack it when I got to the house. (We will be moving back to Ammon Memorial weekend)

So I preceded to pack EVERY book (children's, church, fiction, non-fiction, everything) we owned. Along with 3 book shelves, a desk, all of my winter sweaters, my purses, humidifiers, garden and yard tools.

We made it just north of Ucon on a country road, the truck died so I steered it to the side of the road. I happened to be talking on the phone with Casey right then and told him he needed to come rescue us. Then I saw some white smoke, thought it was steam from overheating, then the black smoke started coming out from under the hood and in the vents. I told Casey I think that the trucks on fire and I gotta go. I turned to the kids and told them, "Everyone get out now!" Tanner pulled Ellie out from the back, Ashlyn and Sam jumped out.

About 10 seconds after we got out of the truck flames were coming out from under the hood. I called 911 and tried to describe the location. (I never thought I would be talking with the 911 operator, but they are very nice and calm.) All I wanted to do was cry because I felt so helpless; not knowing if the truck would explode and hurt someone, if the abandoned house that I was only 50 feet away from would catch fire, or if the 2 enormous pine trees that the truck was only 5 feet away from would also ignite! Too many what ifs for me.

In the meantime........., while I was on the phone, Tanner and Ashlyn took Sam and Ellie (who were both very upset) to a nearby home, knocked on the door, told them that our truck was on fire and could the kids please stay inside and watch cartoons! They are some pretty great kids, smart thinkers, I didn't tell them to do anything.

Anyway, it took the Idaho Falls fire dept. about 15 minutes to get there. By that time the fire had gone through the engine, through the cab and was 3/4 of its way through all of my books!

Some nice men were there trying to help make sure that me and my kids were safe and then stopped traffic. We were very nervous that there would be an explosion since my truck had dual gas tanks and both of them were full! (the firemen said the tanks only explode in Hollywood, rarely do they explode because the gas is too rich and there wasn't any fumes leaking).

In the meantime..........., the last thing that Casey had heard me say was that the truck was on fire and good-bye. After I had called 911 my phone automatically went to emergency lockout mode. So, Casey couldn't get ahold of me, my phone wouldn't even pick up to voice mail. So he was panicking. He was about 10 miles down that same road waiting for us at our home. He got in his car to come get us, now when I think of truck fire I picture some little flames and I think that is what Casey thought, but as he headed down the road and saw a huge cloud of black smoke he was wondering if he lost all of us in an explosion. He made it to us before the fire trucks, so was able to see the damage.

We ended stopping traffic for quite awhile. When I could tear my eyes away from the fire I noticed that everyone who stopped had their phones out and were taking picture and recording the fire.

Someone e-mailed us the first 2 pictures. I am standing in the orange sweatshirt in disbelief that this is really happening while the tires are popping and the horn is blaring for a few minutes. (I guess it was kind of like his battle cry and he wasn't going to go out without a fight.)

We are now working with our home owners insurance to replace the things we lost in the back of the truck.