One Smokin' Fathers Day

I know I already explained our little Fathers Day stumble, but that was just the morning time. That evening we turned up the heat on our day. And when I say 'turned up the heat' I mean it literally. We barbequed for Fathers Day dinner and Kyle being the manly man he is, wanted to do all the grilling (I know I'm like the worst wife for letting him make his own dinner, but he wanted to! Besides, he's much better at it.). So we had these amazing ribs. It was a delicious meal and a nice end to a special day. Well, as we were putting the kids to bed, we smelled something smoking. Kyle could have sworn it was neighbors roasting marshmallows. I wasn't convinced. So after the kids went down, we came back downstairs to check on the grill. Turns out it had been on the whole time! We had eaten dinner, bathed and read with the kids and now finally we came down to find it still on! So we immediately turned it off, but the wall behind it had become slightly discolored so we felt it and it was piping hot! We put the hose on it for a few hours and thought that it was just a close call so we went to bed. The next morning our house was filled with a hazy-type smoke and we all had headaches. Kyle went down to check on the grill spot and it was still pretty hot! So he started with the hose again, but living in the flattest place in the world, the water immediately ran out of our backyard to the back alley. Our maintenance man hopped the fence to see where all the water was coming from and we told him what happened. Within 2 minutes of hearing our story and feeling the wall he did this to it:

He took a sledge hammer and went to town. We couldn't believe it! It was all charred and black on the inside. Then he had to call the fire department to make sure there was no other damage anywhere else in the house. So an actual fire truck came to our house! I seriuosly could not believe this was happening to us! It was crazy!

In the Comin household, we don't wait for a measly school field trip to see a fire truck. We let one come to us!

The firemen were super friendly and made sure the kids got to touch and play with anything they wanted to in the truck. Although they were a little apprehensive due to unfamiliar territory, they managed to let mom take a few pictures to remember this crazy day.

...So, as we were playing in the truck, the 4 firemen (yes, 4 were scouring our house to make sure it was safe.) were stumped as to how it happened because, to be honest, the grill was not very close to the wall so it really shouldn't have done that. They had to call a fire investigator (who knew they exist?)to come out and "solve the mystery". He deals with arson crimes and wire a gun so he was pretty official. Anyway, he told us the way our apartments are set up, the awning over the grill area just holds the heat in and doesn't let it escape so the only place for it to go was inside the wall. Mystery solved, case closed.
The official Fire Marshall car

In all seriousness, we were all okay and nobody was hurt which is so fortunate because something worse could have happened. We feel a lot more educated on the matter as well, so when you're grilling, be careful!