Earlier I blogged about community; one of the ideas presented was the idea that neighbors should “build a database of house locations, contact info, number and name of family members, number and name of pets, emergency numbers, etc for use during fire, earthquake or other disaster.”

When I opened my front door to see a geyser of flames shooting out from the chimney of the house across the street, I thought two thoughts. 1) Jiminy Crickets, is everyone OUT OF THE HOUSE?? (they were.) 2) We need emergency personnel, where’s the phone, I  need to call 911 (I did and fire trucks were already en route). Once over the initial shock and emergency response, however, my next thoughts were how scarily appropriate my earlier post on community was. Our entire neighborhood turned out to help our unlucky neighbors, one neighbor with a flashlight, everyone concerned as to whether our neighbors got out of the house before it erupted like Vesuvius. We prayed the wind died down, loaned out driveways to get cars off the street so emergency vehicles could get through, and generally gathered in fellowship with a general air of “Do you need anything? Is there anything I can do?”

I know these neighbors by sight and by first name. But I don’t have their phone number, I don’t know who to contact in the event of an emergency. What if several houses has caught fire? Would we have a system to get our neighbors out of the weather (it’s still cold and windy and rainy here), calmed, maybe bed them down until they can make other plans? Other than calling 911, I felt a bit  lost as to  how to help. Maybe there wasn’t anything else we could do at the time, but having a disaster plan probably would have helped us all feel a little more prepared and a little less helpless.

Thankfully, no one was hurt and the situation was quickly brought under control. I will check on my neighbors tomorrow in the light of day to see if there is anything else they need. Know and love your neighbors!