FIRE!

[Martin Wisenbaker]

List:

A few years ago, when my wife was still alive, I was tuning a Charles
Walter studio at a house in a suburban subdivision west of Houston, Texas
when a fire broke out. Some time before this I had the thought of what
would I do in case this should happen. I made a conscious decision at
that time that I would gather all my tools and things, close the piano
and exit the premises as quickly as possible and then consider ways to
help if I could. I had the opportunity to do just that on that day in
October of that year in the late 1990's. Seated at the piano, I was
facing east against the front wall of the house in the living room. The
kitchen was on my left. The west wall and part of the north wall of the
kitchen  was glass. This gave me a full view of the detached garage and
part of the driveway. About half way through the tuning I looked around
to my left at the garage and the driveway. All looked serene and normal.
There were two vehicles in the garage, an Audi and a Suburban. Some
minutes later, the lady of the house rushed down the stairs, passed by me
hurriedly exclaiming, "What is going on out there?" I looked to my left
again as she passed by and beheld a frightful scene. The whole front of
the detached garage was on fire and the big orange flames were beginning
to leap onto the roof of the house. Remembering my plan of action for
such an occasion, I jumped up, ripped my muting strips out of the piano,
threw all my tools in my bag, put the front board back on the piano and
closed the fallboard with the thought that soon water from firemen's
hoses could soon be cascading in. I ran out to my car which I had parked
directly in front of the house, put my bag in it and moved the car down
the street about a block or so. I came back to see if I could help in
some way. By this time all the neighbors were outside their houses all
around looking on. It was obvious that someone had called the fire
department by this time. The lady of the house was crying by now, but
still inside the house. Her oldest son, around 16, seemed too numbed to
say any thing to help his mother. Her younger teen aged son, about 13 or
14, had the presence of mind to tell his mother, "That is why we have
insurance". The decision was made to all exit the house. There were still
younger children upstairs. They all got out. I asked the lady where her
husband was. She told me he was on a business trip on the east coast. She
was still crying and almost hysterical. I knew her husband had a right to
learn that his house was on fire. I told the lady to, "Call your
husband". She said his phone number was on the refrigerator. No one
wanted to go back in to retrieve the number from the refrigerator which
was only a few feet from the origin of the fire. But me telling her to
call her husband caused her to begin to get her wits together. She did
call someone at the Houston office of his company who then in turn called
to the meeting where he was. Two secretaries searched until they found
him. He dismissed himself from the meeting and took the next plane back
to Houston. Meanwhile I went across the street and borrowed a neighbor's
phone and called my wife and was giving her a play by play account of
what was happening when the attic exploded. Debris fell down on the front
sidewalk  in front of the front door. I did have a thought that I could
have moved the piano out of the house and across the street into a
neighbor's garage. But when the debris fell right in front of the front
door I was glad I had not tried to do that. The younger children were
crying because their parakeet was still upstairs. It was later rescued by
a fireman. When the first fire truck arrived, they parked it right where
I had been parked. I surely was glad I had moved my car in time.

The fire started in the Audi. It spread over to the Suburban which had a
full tank of gasoline. She had just filled it up. The detached garage and
all its contents were a total loss. The house was, for the most part,
saved, except for the roof. It all burned off. The family was all saved
intact. The house was restored, a new garage was built and they bought
another Charles Walter piano which I tuned a number of times before he
was transferred to Oklahoma. The insurance company thought that the heat
could have damaged the first piano so they paid for another one. The lady
sent me a nice letter of appreciation of my services and also to tell me
that they were moving to Oklahoma.