"Yikes............We're on Fire"

Not that I yelled the word......"yikes", but we were on fire.
We had been home for only a couple of hours after returning from "The Williams Family Reunion" down in New Braunfels, TX. Bags had been unpacked. Mail had been read. E-mail had been read (all 67 pieces for 2 days, 65 of them spam). All set to watch the Cowboy game. Pattye had built a nice fire (that's her job because she likes to do it) seeing that the temperature had dropped almost 40 degrees from when we had left the Hill Country.
After about three hours all of a sudden the fireplace started to roar, and I mean ROAR, and we started hearing and seeing things fall down into the fire.
Our first thought was there may have been a bird's nest that had caught on fire in the chimney and was adding fuel, but since the fire had been burning for several hours, I had doubted that.
As I was getting ready to get on the roof and see what was happening, the doorbell rang and someone who had been driving down the street noticed that a lot of ash and sparks were spewing from the chimney.
As I got on the roof, which is about 30 feet at its peak, I noticed several cars pulled over to the side of the road and looking at the embers coming out.
About that time I heard the fire trucks blaring their alarms. Fortunately for us the fire station is only a couple of blocks away. Apparently a passer-by must have thought the house was on fire and alerted the fire department to the problem.
By the time they got the 3 hook and ladders into our cul-de-sac, along with 2 police squad cars, the fire in the fireplace had died down.
One fireman went onto the roof and examined the chimney, checked the roof and declared everything was safe. Another came into the house and checked for any heat along the walls and he also gave a thumbs-up sign.
After some discussion, it was determined that some soot build-up over the years in the chimney had caught on fire adding more fuel to the fire as it dropped down and then throwing embers through the top of the chimney.
They and we were satisfied everything was safe and after about 1/2 hour they were gone and we enjoyed the remnants of the fire that by then had slowed to just the burning embers from our adventurous afternoon.
So all ended well. One fireman suggested we have the chimney cleaned every couple of years; however, he said we wouldn't need it now because it cleaned itself with the roaring fire.
It was a little harrowing and reminded me of when our house burned down when I was a senior in highschool, but that story is for a future blog.
Next on the blog will be a story about the family reunion and why family is so important........
Oh yeah, the Cowboys lost...in a horrible finish!!

UPDATE: Pattye told me it was actually 2 hook and ladders and one ambulance. Also, I didn't get a chance to thank the Richardson Fire Department for their excellent response as well as the concerned citizen who called in the alarm. Thanks everyone.