The Lumberyard

When my dad was 7 yrs old, he was at an evening service at church when he heard the fire sirens go off outside. Because Runnemede at the time only had a volunteer fire department, several of the men in the congregation left quickly. Dad said it was either fall or winter, because it was already dark outside at the time. Though many looked around, wondering what the fire sirens could mean, they stayed and finished out the service. It wasn't until the service was over that he began to hear a commotion outside, followed by his brother Carl running in the church crying. Dad immediately ran out the front doors of the church to see what was going on. As soon as he stepped outside he was greeted by a wall of red. The sky had filled with the glowing sky from a fire at the lumberyard just a little over a block away. He had never seen anything like it and was scared to death! He said he was convinced that Satan was coming for all of them on a ball of fire. The fire was so intense that the sky was just bright red from the thing. After his mom assured them that they would be ok, they went home and got into bed. The fire still raging into the night. The next morning, they woke up and the fire was out, but he said that memory of that moment when he stepped outside the church doors is as vivid today as it was then - the glowing red sky of that massive fire.