Dad, you would've loved it

I was woken up at 2.30 this morning by the sound of a large engine and blue flashing lights. I laid in bed thinking 'Good lord, what is wrong with this street!' before curiousity, or plain old nosiness, got the better of me. I was very concerned to find two fire engines parked outside our building. I leaned out the window to see if they were at a house on our side of the road. The walls between the terraced houses (that's what they're called when they're all stuck together like on our street) are over a foot thick solid stone so they're quite safe but it's still very scary to think of a neighbor's house on fire. There didn't seem to be any panic and I couldn't smell smoke so I went back to bed.

Soon I heard the high whine of a different kind of motor. Perhaps it was a false alarm and they were retracting the hoses. I lay and listened. No! That's the sound of the big ladder going up. I was out of bed again and sure enough there was a fire fighter suspended over the rooftop of a house across the road. These are tall houses, three stories, and it was quite a site seeing that ladder fully extended and the silhouette of the fire fighter against the night sky. Then he turned on a bright light and started examining the rooftop and chimney. It looked as if he was taking samples too.

I decided not to fight my natural inclination and made myself comfortable at the window. As I looked down our side of the road I could see other heads popping out of windows for a look and the people across the street had pulled up chairs to their window. A few neighbors (all men) had put on their dressing gowns and gone down to the pavement to see what was going on. I so wish Dad was here because I know he would've been down there like a shot and I would have the full story by now. I toyed with the idea of going down myself but it looked like a boy's club so I stayed put.

Eventually they started to bring the ladder down. They were brilliant. Aside from the engine noise there were no raised voices, everything done so carefully. At one point it looked like the ladder might damage the branches of a tree so one of the fire fighters climbed up and held the branches out of the way as they brought the ladder down.

And then, the moment I had been waiting for. The moment that I knew would come. The moment that makes me almost misty-eyed over England. One of the neighbors further down the road came out with a big tray of mismatched mugs of steaming hot tea and a small plate of biscuits. As soon as the ladder was safely back in place the fire fighters gathered round the tray and warmed themselves with tea and biscuits.

Now they're packing up and leaving as quietly as they came. It's 3.30am and I absolutely must get back to sleep. I just wanted to be sure to capture the adventure before other things got in the way.

Good night, Dad.