as told by gramp

The sound of my parents voices drifted through our tiny little house, upstairs, and into the bedroom in which my brother and I were trying to sleep. On certain nights (this night being one of them) my father would stay up late to play cards and enjoy the company of my mother. My guess is that they were in the middle of their second hand when my mother announced, that she smelled something funny. My father replied to her rediculousness with, "Oh Lily, you are always smelling something funny!" As they continued on playing, it wasn't long before my mother yet again insisted by saying, "Jack, I smell something!" The high pitched sound of my fathers chair screetching across the floor filled the house, as he got up, without a word to reassure my mother that there was nothing to be concerned about. Unfailingly, my mother was right. My father neared our basement door just as the smoke began rushing in underneath. The door handle felt hot, but he swung open the door just to reassure himself that there was indeed a fire. By this point my mother was already up out of her chair yelling in her stern voice that we were all used to for us to get out of the house, yelling that there was a fire. It wasn't that late, so naturally none of use were asleep anyways. We all jumped up, and although I could hear my sister screming from the other room I bolted down the stairs and out of the house. I knew what to do, and even under these circumstance I was thrilled. I ran towards the end of our street, where the fire alarm post sat and waited patiently for a neighborhood emergency. I pulled up the plastic case and yanked at the red handle. No sooner did it take for the sirens to sound off than it took for the firetrucks to arrive at our house. I stood there watching, the only one who seemed to be able to just stand there and watch. I looked over at my family standing together across the street, my parents trying to calm down my sister. As I walked closer towards them I saw my sister run up to a firefighter, still in tears. After a little while of him trying to figure out exactly what it was that she was saying, I heard him say back in between his laughs, "Don't worry hunny, your cat was the first one out of this house, she's safe."
Not too long after this mess began, my older sister, Vinny, came home from the movies to find that our house was the house consuming our little town with all this smoke.

Can you imagine coming home to find that your house was just on fire?