Writing Journal/ Blog ~NurseWriter~

The Fire Hazard - Word Count 462

Make up writing for 1/18/08- FYI, being a nurse I worked 13 hrs and had to wait for my son (who is also a nurse) to drive home last night, so needless to say I was in bed and too tired to write.


The Fire Hazard:

Went to bed at 12am, to wake at 2:45am to the smoke alarm.  Did you ever wake up to one?  It was horrible!  I knew it was real and not just a malfunction from boiling water in the kitchen, as I could hear my son running down the steps yelling, "It's a fire".

I scrambled to get to the basement.  I see my husband, coming up with a cigarrette in his hand.  He is hanging on to the railing, as if standing asleep.  The smoke is pouring out of the basement and he is just standing there hanging on, looking at me dazzed.

I yelled at him, "Paul get out of the smoke!"  He raised his eyebrows as if to say, "What?" He walked slowly up the steps, still half doped up from an apparant muscle relaxer he took.  My eyes were burning and my throat felt scorched from the smoke, just breathing it a few seconds.  I couldn't beleive he was just standing there in the smoke like it was nothing.  My son is in the basment and I can here him coughing, as he is trying to put out the smoldering items and the rug that had been ignited by a cigarette from my husband.

My husband went to the kitchen and I pointed him to the door, telling him to go outside.  He just stood there and turned on the kitchen fan to finish his cigarrette.  I went to help my son with the fire,  but it was pretty much under control.  We looked at each other like the two parents of the house.

I don't know if you can understand that, but my son and I should not be the ones putting out a fire, that a man feels was no big deal.  This was  a serious event here and not until I started looking around, did I realize how many multiple burn marks are all over.  They are on the rug in front of the couch, on the table next to the couch, his computer board is melted from some and so it the rug by his computer.

I am VERY frustrated right now.  I have begged him to stop smoking in the house.  We have replaced one rug already in another room.  Now we actually have a life threatening event and you go up to the kitchen and continue to smoke a new cigarrete you lit as your step son is trying to stamp out a fire!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is insanity!