Ordering Pizza The Hard Way.

After a lovely Friday afternoon hanging out with our backyard neighbors in their pool, I was reluctantly going to make dinner. I didn't feel like making dinner. I was too relaxed and didn't want to exude any effort. The Weasels wanted to order pizza. I too wanted to order pizza, but already had hamburgers and hot dogs all prepped to go on the grill. Pizza was out, or so I thought.

I pulled out the charcoal to light the grill. It didn't want to light. Some days I have no problem getting it going quickly. Today wasn't one of those days. Every time the flame caught, it went right out again. The charcoal just wouldn't light easily. I kept playing with it and relighting. Finally it lit. I waited a few minutes to let the grill heat before tossing the burgers on.

Cooking over indirect heat, as opposed to directly over the flame to prevent flare ups, I had a few minutes to talk over the fence with with my neighbor. I had Boy Weasel turn the sprinklers on in the front yard and soon we would be eating.

A full 2 minutes later, Boy Weasel called to me, "Mom.........THE PORCH IS ON FIRE!". I turn around to see that for the first time ever, Boy Weasel wasn't getting over excited about a small flare up. The porch was indeed ON FIRE! Flames were shooting about 3 feet out from the porch, where the charcoal bin had caught fire. Oh, the irony.

I went running around to the front of front of the house to grab the hose that was still attached to the sprinkler. My neighbor called for her husband to come help me and he cleared the back fence with a fire extinguisher in hand (very impressive actually). He attacked the back side of the fire, while I hosed down the front. It only took about a minute to put the flames out and I was very grateful for the help.

The damage was fairly minimal, compared to what it could have been (2 more minutes and the house would have caught). There are a few scorched floor boards and part of the railing that will need to be replaced before winter, they lost some strength and integrity. A plastic caster wheel from the grill melted into the porch and the charcoal bin melted down to 1/3 it's original size. The charcoal grill will not be usable. I do not think that replacement parts will attach easily to melted mountings. We'll be cooking with gas this summer (much less flammable - hah!).

I consider us to be very lucky. Not only did Boy Weasel see and alert us to the fire in time to put it out and save out house, we got to order pizza for dinner.