Dial 999 and ask for the Fire Brigade...

Last night we had a mini-drama, luckily all ended well and no one was hurt, the animals are fine and the house was not damaged.

Although we regularly have the chimney swept we had a chimney fire, well to be more accurate a fire in the flue from the Rayburn.  It began as what looked like lots of mist sweeping down from the roof - this effect was compounded by the fact that a lot of mist was also sweeping in and across the surrounding fields...  I remarked to George that it was looking rather like that old film "The Fog"!

A short while later we established that it was, in fact,  very pale grey smoke coming from the flue and in excessive quantities...a crackling roar could now be heard in the flue ... time to get the animals out of their beds and into safety and call the emergency services!  I saw to the animals and left George to do the telephoning and see to closing doors, and so on, then deal with the Firemen when they arrived.

My only thought was to  make sure the animals were safe and grab my handbag.  I had no thought for photographs albums, jewellery, treasured and cherished items.  Luckily our daughter and her family live just across the garden and they were kind enough to allow my menagerie and I sanctuary!  Davina was a star.  She plonked the baby into my arms and poured me a glass of wine then kept the conversation flowing.  Thank you, Davina!xx

Last night was one of those nights when I was happy that Toby is an old dog, he was happy to be where I was, no fuss, no nonsense.  Complete acceptance.

You can read an account and see photographs of the incident, if you are interested, on my brother's blog Owl Wood.  Thank you Ian for all your assistance last night.  You were brilliant.xx

The Fire Brigade did a wonderful job, minimal fuss, almost no mess whatsoever.  We were fortunate that it hadn't ignited after we had gone to bed.  Our chimney/flue was swept in October last year, the firemen said that there had probably been a build-up of residue in one particular spot and this had ignited.

So, I could launch into how lucky we were, endless possibilities.

I'll go back to that old chestnut - what do you think  you would you grab if your house were on fire?

All I could think of - knowing that George was fine - were my animals and their safety, I grabbed my handbag because that was on my route out - apart from that I walked away knowing that nothing else truly mattered.