A Drill Sergeant In The House.

A double call to help.

Often I doze off to late night back to back episodes of " Medical Detectives" which dissect real life crime and I might be forgiven to at times waking up to imaginary villains slinking about. Not so this morning.

The sirens were blaring so loud that I took note of them through the triple glazed windows, TV noise and a state of dozing. It took me a while to orientate myself but when I realized that the fire department's siren was looping, I quickly woke up Bob. Well, not much fun as he was in deep sleep and at first didn't know what I was shouting about. The lights had been switched on to blinding brightness while I kept on saying:

" Schatzi, wake up. The fire alarm is going off. Get up. "

In the movies it looks so much smoother. The men merely hop into awaiting clothes, shoes and hardly need a moment to descend the pole between dreams and reality. Bob, took ten seconds to be fully awake and within three minutes, a sip of coffee and a wifely stricture to take a snack along ( it was a quarter past four after all ) he was running out the door to head to the fire station.

Quelle excitement indeed. It had been raining so I wondered if a cellar had been flooded or a cat gone up the tree. Mausi and I settled on the couch, whiling the time away. Not a long time either as within ten minutes he was back. A false alarm, I thought? No, by the time Bob had arrived at the station the big truck had gone already and as Bob ( in his spiffy fireman kit ) was about to sit in the other truck, the first one returned. There had been a fire in Burg, but apparently our Eisenberg team wasn't needed. Fair enough, at least one knows that the boys are there when it's crunch time.

Bob had been home for not even enough time for me to make him a cup of coffee when the next siren went off. Another call out, another bout of running out the door with a whole slew of wifely advice a.k.a. nagging.

Of course I was worried about the misfortune somebody was having but at least, all the hard training the boys had undertaken was paying off. Bob came home about an hour later and it had turned out that there had been a major fire after all ( the sparks of the small fire had jumped ship and started on a nearby roof even though it was raining ) and at least five different fire brigades had gone to help. Bob said that there must have been at least fifty firemen present and thus the fire stood no chance of finding more tinder.

I find it amazing that despite the snow, rain and cold weather, a spark could ignite another fire. Well done to all the firemen, who do risk it all to save others...Great stuff.

Biggi