All I could think of was I had to get Alan (my son) out of the house. I went to his bedroom door to get him. The door was closed and I knew when I opened it that the oxygen from the room would fuel the flames and make a fireball, but it was a door I had to open. I opened the door and screamed into the room, "The house is on fire, get out!" He immediately got up and went for the door. I grasped his hand in case the smoke got so thick I could not see him and so I would know where he was. As soon as we walked away from his bedroom door I saw the fireball in the living room come shooting across the dining room ceiling, make a 90 degree turn to the left and went into his room and then the fire flashed all across the ceiling and down the walls of his room.

I looked at the phone on the wall by the patio doorway and wanted to call 911, but my brothers words came back to me, you get out, call from the neighbors. Just then the intense heat caused the phone to burst and explode.

We could have gone thru the patio doors but it was only a few feet from the fire and I knew the oxygen would make the fireball come right at us so I chose to use the kitchen door for the exit. We were about 20 feet from the kitchen door and it was filling fast with smoke and the heat was intense but we still had our small airway passage to walk thru. The white on the kitchen door was getting smaller and smaller as we got closer. When we were in front of the door the smoke, thick and black, filled the whole house and I could no longer breathe or see.

My thought was I had to find that doorknob and get out before the fireball reached us. All this was happening in a split second and just as I had that thought both doors, inside and outside, opened. I never found the knob and I never opened those doors but they were open.

I saw daylight, but felt no breeze. I had to step thru that door and get us out. I instinctively started to raise my foot to step out. Just then I lost my gripe on Alan's hand and saw the fireball come at us again but instead of going out the door it make another 90 degree turn to the left and ran along the ceiling of the basement stairwell and then the fire flashed down on the wall which was behind the kitchen door, then I saw the fire flash down the wall on our right.

Next thing I knew I was standing in the driveway some 12 feet from the house. I looked back for Alan and saw that he was standing beside me. I saw the doors and the fireball had followed us out and was coming over the top and sides of the door. It is a steel door and I knew it would be too hot now for me to touch and that I would not be able to close it and the oxygen would set the whole house in flames and that the house would be gone. Then just as they had both opened for us, they both closed. I got news for you folks I believe in angels, God's agents send to protect us.

I again took Alan's hand and we ran to the neighbors. I pounded and pounded on the door until someone answered and screamed, "Call 911, my house is on fire." Our neighbor, cell phone in hand when she answered the door, dialed immediately. God had already prepared her to handle the situation.

At the time I didn't realize what a mess we looked. LOL She kept asking me if I was OK. "Yes, yes I'm ok. I need to go back outside and wait for the fire department." Three or four times she asked me, and then I heard the sires.

We have a volunteer fire department so I figured the police would be there first. I was wrong. The fire department, ambulance, and police ALL arrived at the same time.

I ran out of the neighbor’s house and looked at our house again. The door was still closed, I looked at the glass patio doors and the whole house was filled with bellowing thick black smoke. I wondered how long before the heat would cause the glass to shatter.

A fireman approached me and asked which house. I pointed to our house and said the small white one. "Anyone in the house?"
"NO."
"Pets?"
"Yes, dog and cat."

I watched as he turned off the gas and electricity to the house. Another fireman approached me and said, "Let me take you to the ambulance, you have walked thru flames."
I said, "No, intense heat, fireballs, but I didn't walk thru any flames."
He said, "You walked thru flames. Your hair is singed, your face is burned."
"NO, we walked thru no flames, just intense heat and fireballs,"
He said, "Look at your hands."

I looked and saw my hands were black with soot and the flesh that was showing was red. Again I said, "NO."

He just said, "OK intense heat could cause this too." Then he got one of the policemen and said, "Take her to the ambulance." I said I had to get Alan that I had left him at the neighbors. We went back and got Alan.

I had not really looked good at him before because all that was on my mind was getting out of that house. His hair was also singed, face and hands black with soot and only flesh showing was red. We must have been a sight.

We got into the ambulance and she asked if we could breathe ok.
"YES."
Again with the, you must have walked thru fire.
"NO, intense heat and fireballs."
She said fireballs kill; you don't walk away from them alive.

NO, but we did!

She started to take down all our information and then called the hospital to get ready for us. I asked if she could call Charlie (my husband) at work before we left.
"Yes."
Just then a policeman poked his head in and said, "Do you need a driver?"
"NO, she said she wants to call her husband first and that is what we are waiting on and I have 2 drivers tonight."
"Two", he says.
"Yes, we were suppose to have a practice drill at 7 tonight. The first crew was suppose to come early to set up but some of us decided to come early to help them. The second crew was confused and thought they were suppose to set up so they were there too. We had everyone there when the call came in, 2 driver, all the EMT's, all the firemen and the chief where there, everyone one of us."
"What time did the call come in?"
"10 to 6."
"What was your response time?"
"Two minutes."
All the cop could say was "WOW!"

We went to the hospital and the doctor said I had quite the hair do. LOL :) She also thought we had walked thru fire. But we only had minor burns on our hands and face and mild smoke inhalation. After being in the hospital about 2 or 3 hours the nurse walked in and looked at the monitor behind me and said, "Oh I see your pulse is down to 99 now. You are calming down." LOL I was pumped for sure that night. :)

Charlie came in shortly after and said the Red Cross had paid for a hotel room for us for the night and that the fire Captain was waiting to walk us thru the house. The house had become a hot box and they had to spray down all the ceilings and walls with water so nothing could spark up and set the house on fire again.

When we got to the house. They had set fan in there and opened all doors to clear out the smoke. He showed us the ceiling where the fireball started and said we had 4 fireballs in the house and from what I had told them and the looks of the ceiling they had followed us as we went out of the house. He also said we had a low smoke line, that the smoke was 6 inches from the floor and all the way to the ceiling and that I should not have ever waken up because of all the smoke in the whole house, that it should have made me unconscious.

I told him again about our air passage and all he could say is fires and smoke just don't work that way, you never should have waken up but died. He went on to say even though I woke up and got Alan the fireballs should have killed us but they didn't. He said to Charlie several times, you are lucky your wife and son are alive today. He also went on to say that the steel doors had saved the house from structural damage so the house would not be red tagged (condemned), but that we could not live in it, everything in the upstairs was a total lose.

We looked in the basement; no damage at all, not even water down there after all the water they had used to put out the fire. Six inches of ice in our drive way now from all the water but nothing in the basement. :) And the miracles don't stop there folks but continued on even to this day.

While we were in the house I looked on the kitchen counter and there was my purse next to a melted microwave. But the purse was ok, just smelled of smoke. LoL so we had the checkbook and cash. PTL All I wanted to do then was go uptown and get some clean clothes to wear.

Now we live in a small town and they roll up the streets at night, but guess what Wal-Marts at the first of the year decided to start staying open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so I could now have my new clean clothes and we had the money to pay for them. PTL again and again and again.

You think the miracles stopped there. Well don't count on it. LOL By this time I had stopped counting the miracles God had done for us that day and just accepted them as they came our way.

We walked into Wal-Marts, immediately a gal approached us and asked if we needed help. I told her we had had a house fire and I needed new clothes.
She said, "Yes, I'm a volunteer fireman for Emerson and I knew from your singed hair you had been in a fire."
She then asked for sizes and what we needed and showed us all the sales. AND then gave us numbers to call if we needed more help with money, clothes, food, shelter, etc. and then she hugged smoky me. :)

We went to the hotel and I washed my singed hair and showered and got into some nice clean smelling clothes, It was so nice. In the morning Charlie said they had free breakfast but it was probably only a roll or donut but we decided to check it out anyway. No donuts there lol, cereal, milk, juices, coffee, bacon, eggs, pancakes, the whole works.

We checked out of the hotel and went to the insurance agent and told them what happened. She got up and said, "I'm taking you guys out to breakfast you will need to eat."
We had to laugh and tell her God had taken care of breakfast for us.
She then said, "OK but I want to pay for it." Again God had taken care of the bill too.
So she said, "You go to any motel you want, give them this number to call us and we will pay for your lodging and all your meals until you can get back into your house. Then call me back with your phone number and we'll start to get your house back in shape."

So we got our motel and then went back to the house to have a look at it in the daylight. Incredible damage. Pictures on the walls had melted and burned right off, nothing left of them but a black mark where they had been. A sight to see for sure.

We went back to our motel room and the desk called up and said our insurance agent called and to call back. We called and she said met her and the other agent at your house in 5 minutes.

We met them there and a few minutes later the electrician walked in and looked the house over and said he would try to get the electricity back up that day but Thursday for sure, That he would get a hold of the city, get our permits and take care of it all himself and call us when it was done and we had electricity again.

The agent from Jackson showed up minutes later and called the construction crew to start work on the house. Everything but everything was being taken care of.

By Thursday the electricity was back on in Alan’s room, bathroom and basement and the heat was on in the house. They usually clean the furnace and vents after a bad fire like that but they said no need to do that because we had so much damage that the soot and smoke from the furnace and vents could do not more harm to the house then what had already been done and they would clean it after they gutted the house.

Today, Thursday, most of the furniture, clothes, and the mess is cleaned up and out of the house and they have started to rip out the walls. We have to replace the windows, walls, ceiling, cupboards, everything. The whole house has to be replaced, furniture, and even our clothes. I feel like Job, everything was lost and then restored by God! Insurance agent said they would advance us any money we needed for food etc. God is an awesome God. PTL I could write so much more but this is long enough as is. God bless you all.