The Fire - In Lindsay's Words.......

Part 1

To be honest,  I don't really remember clearly what happened when I got to Lindsay's location next to the mailbox lastn Thursday afternoon so I have asked her to tell me what happened that fateful day. Because of Lindsay's traumatic brain injury (due to her treatment for brain cancer when she was a child) it is common for it to take days, weeks and sometimes even years before all the pieces of an incident come together so it was no surprise to me that her telling this evening had much more detail than it had on the day the house burned.

Lindsay had been taking her lunch break at the usual time, sitting in the living room watching the television.  She was wearing her typical stall cleaning attire (old grubby, sweats) and the sheepskin slippers she'd received for Christmas the year I'd worked for Fred Meyer. She said she felt cold so she decided to retrieve her favorite fleece blanket from her room before General Hospital got started. That made the time somwhere just before 1 PM.

She described the air as being somehow misty or something as she made her way down the hall. It didn't smell like smoke yet but it was somehow just odd, heavy maybe,...odd enough for her to notice but not enough for her to be alarmed yet. 

At some point in her journey down the hall, Lindsay heard what she described as a shot. There was no sound from the smoke alarm so she thought she was safe. Her first thoughts were that loud sound was the neighbors shooting guns again so it didn't dissuade her from continuing her mission. 

She grabbed the golden blanket covered with horses wrapping, it around herself making her way back to the living room to watch the soap opera. It was when the lights flickered that Lindsay knew she needed to get herself out of the house. Still there was no sound from the smoke alarm, there had only been that funny feeling air, the unidentified explosion, and now those flickering lights.

Being right by the mud room door, she decided she would grab her boots before she made her way outside. Only when she opened that door, did she know what she was facing. Thick black smoke spewed from the furnace and flames liked at her boots. Only then did the smoke alarm sound.

To be continued.............

Some folks have asked if we have a donation account aside from this one at go fund me http://www.gofundme.com/rebuildingourhome  The answer to that question is "Yes." There is a savings account at Chase Bank, South Hill Fred Meyer Branch. Those who would rather donate through it, can do so by requesting the David Caillier rebuildingourhome account. The advantage of that account is they don't take out fees like Go
 Fund Me does.