Fire (and water?)

I have noticed a *lot* of sirens from fire engines today.  And not just ones that pass by.  In two instances, the sirens stopped right as they approached.  One was on the street just around the corner, and one was on the street just opposite from that.

I wonder why, and if it's all just a coincidence.  Perhaps the sudden (and much needed) arrival of winter weather (for us, that means rain) has something to do with it?  People are starting fires in their fireplaces after a long hiatus?  One of them I did go outside to see what was up, and I think it may have just been for an EMT, and not an actual fire.  Although I'm kind of confused why they would send both the ambulance and a fire truck in that case.  I doubt just because the fireman were bored and wanted an excuse to go out.

As many of you probably know, but some may not, we had a house fire back in 2005.  It started as an electrical fire.  Thankfully it was caught fast and nobody was hurt and the damage was relatively minimal as far as fires go.  But any kind of house fire can easily (and did) do some serious damage that becomes a significant undertaking to repair.

So I'm kind of especially sensitive and aware of sirens from fire engines.  It's not something that I used to think about much, but after having a fire, I realize that behind every siren, there's someone with a story, and I wonder what's going on and sympathize with them.  And hope that it's just a false alarm.

I also get just a tiny bit panicky when I do hear a siren that doesn't go on by, hoping that it's not here for our house.

I'm not sure if I had ever known anyone else that had had a fire.  But somehow, as soon as we had a fire, I kept meeting all sorts of people with fire stories.  As if I had somehow joined some unwanted club and was being drawn to like minded members.

Some time last week we were at a park with Dylan and ran into a friend who was there with her son, and  I hadn't yet seen her since being diagnosed with cancer.  So of course we got to talking about how I was feeling, etc.  And she was there with another friend, and this friend of hers has a boyfriend who is currently battling cancer.  So we got to talking, and it turns out that he has the same oncologist as I do.  Which got me wondering how many oncologists there are in the East Bay, and how many people are currently fighting cancer.  And also whether or not this was going to be like the fire, and if I was going to start suddenly meeting all kinds of people with cancer stories.  And if so, maybe that's okay.  Because maybe it's always been out there, and I just haven't known.  And as I said in my initial blog about this, maybe it's not such a bad idea for people to share the bad things in life, so that when something bad does happen to them, they know they're not alone.