Continuing Education

Before we left town last Friday, Brayden went to visit the fire station with some friends from our mom's group. (Pictures to follow once I get them from my friend- I was a bad mommy that day, and forgot to bring the camera....) The plans to make the visit had been in the works for over a month, but the timing worked out well, seeing as he was quite concerned over my friend's childhood home having a massive fire the week before.

The Atkisson Family's lesson on fire safety continued on Saturday afternoon when we made it to my home town and had the opportunity to see the damage first hand. Such devastation, it was unreal. I had never seen such a sight, I can't even imagine if someone had been inside how they would have escaped. It was quite interesting to see- for young and old alike. Amazing how the fire took out entire rooms, yet left random items within them unscathed.

Brayden has had so many questions since then, as do I--- granted, his are more curiosity, whereas mine are more philosophical in nature!

After asking if it was ok to share some pictures, here they are. I know it is depressing/saddening, but it is also such an eye opener. These don't even do justice to the extent. And mind you, as we were going through, you couldn't even see this much- it was absolutely amazing what we could see on pictures due to the flash. It was was completely dark, other than our flashlights, when there in person.

This is the living room- the room most "saved" from the damage of the fire. (In several of these pictures you will see "stuff" scattered- some was from the fire department tearing things apart; heck, they threw a bathtub out a window in an effort to get things under control, some is from the family going in and trying to salvage any little thing that they can.)

The Dining Area

Kitchen- This is as far as I could get in, as there was no floor left at the front of my feet!

This is where the main bathroom once was- looking into what used to be Susan's closet. (Yes, that is the basement that you see below- which is currently flooded w/ at least 2 feet of water, so they aren't even able to go down there to try to salvage anything.)

Susan's bedroom- the open space on the left is where the closet once stood.

And the master bedroom