Excitement in the 'hood

We had a bit of excitement/fear/uneasiness on our street this morning.  Tony and I had been out and were on our way home when we heard sirens.  Not unusual, right?  Imagine our surprise when we got home and found that the sirens were headed our way.  A house just up the street was on fire!  Fortunately, Lewisville's finest were here within moments, ready to get things under control.  In fact, a total of 12 fire trucks, EMT vehicles, and other support vehicles showed up, discharging personnel like clowns from a VW.  The reason for all the trucks and firemen was the wind.  It's been extremely windy and dry here for the past few days, and fire personnel had to act quickly so the fire didn't spread to neighboring homes.

They did a magnificent job, controlling the situation and preventing further destruction.  The resident of the home, an elderly lady, was evacuated quickly with no injuries.  At this point we're not sure where the fire started, but there was a lot of water-soaked debris piled up on the driveway in back, and the firemen cut a 6' x 6' hole in the roof with a chainsaw.  And a truck from the electric utility company showed up a short time later, so the source of the fire may have been a wiring problem. 

We haven't had this much action on our street since our very first Thanksgiving in Texas.  Tony, the girls, and I had been here about 4 months.  We were enjoying Thanksgiving dinner in our new dining room when we saw something that assured us that we were, indeed, living in Texas--a man on horseback was chasing a cow up the street, lasso in hand!  You just don't see such things in Boca Raton, where we had previously lived. 

I guess now we can go another 27 years before the next big event on our quiet little street.