It was cold in the house when I got home from work yesterday.
Instead of waiting for my husband to get home, I thought I would help him out and start the fire for him.
I should have never tried to get the fireplace burning. I wasn’t sure what I did wrong, but I had smoke billowing into the living room. I must have had the entire neighborhood in a panic, because many of my neighbors were standing outside and the firetruck had arrived. They were getting out of the truck and hooking up hoses while I was opening windows. I looked outside and then walked out. I called to the firefighter and asked him if there was a fire somewhere. He saw how calm I was and said someone had called in a fire at this address. I looked at the smoke coming out of the windows and I was embarrassed. I told him I tried to light the fireplace, and I didn’t know what I had done wrong. The fire wasn’t burning, and the smoke was pouring into the house instead of up the chimney. He made a hand motion to the guys, and they started packing things up. He said this was a first and followed me into the house. Within minutes, he had the fireplace burning, and the smoke was no longer coming into the house. The firefighter was leaving just as my husband walked in. He said he would love to hear the story, but he had to go to the bathroom first. I could hear him laughing as he ran up the steps.