Friday or Fire-day?

Who says nothing exciting ever happens at the scrapbook store?!?

Well, after a teenager threw a cigarette butt in the bushes in front of our store today (MAJOR pet peeve of mine...find a trash can for God's sake...OR...take it home and throw it in your own yard....but, I digress), we had a FIRE.  That's right, a full blown Dismal Swamp, burn-for-3-years, not-even-a-hurricane-could-put-it-out kind of fire.  Well, okay.  Not really.  The bushes caught on fire with a little help from the lovely 50 mph wind gusts we had today.

Thankfully, Elizabeth was there to calmly assess and problem solve.  It's my understanding that a passerby saw the fire, opened the door and notified our staff.  Elizabeth ran outside, saw the shooting flames (in my imagination, they are raging to heights of about 10 or 15 feet by now)  and yelled for Anna to get the fire extinguisher.  Now...keep in mind, that we have a big, red fire extinguisher mounted to the wall by the light switch that we turn on each and every day.  Anna replied, "We don't have one!"  Thankfully, the dry cleaners next door also own an extinguisher and were able to locate it.

Anna called 911 and then me.  Here's how our conversation went:

Me: hello?
Anna: the bushes outside are on fire (in this really low and calm voice)
Me: well, make sure you take pictures
*click*

She totally hung up on me.  That's when I knew she wasn't joking.  In about 12 seconds, the kids and I were out the door,  in the car and half way down the street.

By the time I arrived (less than 15 minutes later), the firemen had come and gone.  All was well except for a few rattled nerves and a lingering odor of BURN. The store wasn't smokey but the smell of fire was just there.

We aired it out by opening the front and back doors, thus creating a huge wind tunnel.  If you happen to find any random scrapbook papers floating around your neighborhood, it's because Elizabeth and I could only chase after so many at a time once that door opened and practically sucked us out.

And, I'm not gonna lie.  There may or may not have been several sprays of Febreze involved.  Okay, maybe several dozen.

Either way, the coast is clear.  No smoke.  No odor.  Unless you smell the bush.  The bush definitely still stinks.

But, let's focus on what's important here.  Fire extinguishers save lives.  The Virginia Beach Fire Department is fast.  Super fast.  Elizabeth has a good head on her shoulders.  Anna does not joke around where fire is concerned, but she does come through when I ask her to take pictures.  Nice going, gals.  You make momma proud, and I'm glad everyone is safe :)