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On February 19, 2007, the most horrifying moment of my life occured. That day the electricity went out and my brother, my sister, my mom, and I were all using candles and flashlights to see. When it got around that time for us to go to bed, I took a candle upstairs with me, so that I could see as I was changing into my pajamas. As I got in bed, I placed the candle on the floor. I was lying in bed for some time, right on the verge of sleep, when I suddenly felt heat on the side of my arm. As I looked over on my floor, the candle had created a fire on my floor, about the size of a notebook. Terror rushed through me as I tried to figure out what to do. I quickly decided to get my trashcan, fill it up with water, and try to put it out myself. As I ran to the bathroom, I was so scared that I could barely put water in the trashcan. When I ran back to my room, the fire had spread well over the size of a notebook, as it had been when I left. I then ran to my mom's room and woke her up. She ran to my room and took my mattress off of my bed to try and put the fire out but it just kept spreading. My mom sent me to wake up my brother, sister, and grandma and to get them out of the house safely. My brother and sister went downstairs immediately but my grandma had Alzheimer’s, so she did not understand what I was trying to tell her. My mom then came into my grandma's room and carried her down the stairs and we all ran outside. We looked around and realized that our dog was still inside, so my mom ran back inside to get our dog. As my mom ran out the front door with our dog, the front window of my room blew out, revealing an uncontrollable mass of flames consuming what used to be my room. My mom told me to call 911 as she made sure that everyone was ok. I could barely talk to the operator. I just kept screaming and crying hysterically, telling the operator to send help fast. Neighbors all came out of their houses and lined the streets. It seemed to take the fire department years to get to my house. Every passing minute seemed like an hour. When they finally arrived, the whole second floor of my house was gone. Where my room used to be was a pile of wood and ash. My mom called some family friends to come and pick us up so that we would not have to stand there and watch. As friends arrived, so did neighbors with bags of clothes for us to wear. My brother, my sister, my grandma, my dog and I all went with Mrs. Pleasants, our family friend. I could not stand the thought of leaving my mother at a time like this but she said that she needed to stay. As we drove down the street, I got the last glimpse of my house, the place we had made our home. I have never been as scared as I was that night. The saying, “You never know what you really have until it is gone” is absolutely true. To look back on this day and think that one of my family members could have been hurt still frightens me. I am so grateful that only mere possessions were lost and that the lives of everyone in the house were saved. In the long run, the house burning down was not necessarily a bad thing; it was a chance for a new beginning. Two years before the fire, my grandmother had an accident with the washing machine and ended up flooding the house. The washer was upstairs so part of the ceiling had collapsed due to the water. We were living with cement floors, no hard wall and a broken heater. When the house burnt down, it gave us a chance to start over. My mom got to design the house, so she finally got the dream house she deserved. We each got to pick our own room and decorate it however we wanted. It gave us a chance to be creative and truly make this new house a home for us. We moved into our new house three days before Christmas that year. We walked into a house with wood floors, hard wall that was painted in yellows and blues, and a fully operating heater/ air-conditioning, not to mention a handicapped accessible downstairs for my grandma. This house was the best Christmas present any of us could have asked for, and the best part was that we got to spend it together as a family.
A New Begining
