Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Big excitement in little A.J.


Apache Junction is a growing community on the eastern end of the 'Phoenix Metropolitan Area', such a charming label for almost a dozen cities butted up against one another. For 70 miles North to South, and 70 miles East to West it is solid city, with a population nearing 8 million people crammed in that area.


Being a city of 'Retirement Communities' Apache Junction can be mellow, especially when the 'Winter Visitors/Snowbirds' head back home to Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan and so forth. It is too hot in the summer to do much outdoors, even with plenty of water to drink. The Telly, even with satellite or cable channells, is utterly mind-numbing. So, entertainment is rare, and excitement is even rarer.


Tuesday morning, Matt came charging into the house and shouted, "There's a fire on the freeway!! I heard the explosion!!"

So, after I had staggered out of sleep, prayed for the safety of whomever might have been in the vicinity and grabbed my camera, out the door I flew, barefoot, in my nightie, with a terminal case of bed-head.


Yes there was a horrific fire blazing, the smoke was black and dense, and reeked of burning rubber. The flames were orange, red, and yellow; while the two fire trucks had to park a distance away from the fire and walk in with their hoses. In the few minutes it had taken to get out of the house, traffic had backed up nearly a mile, all four lanes of it.






Once all the excitement had died down, and all the neighbours throughout the 'Manufactured Home Community' (a fancy term for a trailer park) had returned home to rehash what they had seen, I went back outside, and I could see that the vehicle fire was an early 60's Winnebago, all that remained now was a blackened skeleton crouching on the verge of the freeway.



This took Matt and I back to our childhoods, when we would spend every Saturday night watching the series "Emergency"... To be immediately followed by a structure fire within walking distance. Matt, our brother Jim, and myself were sure that there was a pyromaniac in the area.

Anywhoo... it was a bit of excitement, and I thought it would make for interesting reading, especially with photos to go along with it.

3 Comments:

At 4:45 PM, Blogger Anita Marie Moscoso said...

GWEN M...GAL REPORTER!

This was pretty cool ( hot?) reading Gwen

Anita Marie

 
At 6:55 PM, Blogger Heather Blakey said...

You really are the roving reporter Gwen. What a fun post. I must press everyone to amuse themselves in spare moments by posting here.

 
At 8:48 PM, Blogger Gail Kavanagh said...

Wonderful! Please tell us more about your home - I was really taken with the picture of the pots outside the house - so different to anything here.

 

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