Yesterday around 2:00pm we noticed smoke coming from something less than 2 blocks away. After a bit, fire trucks started showing up. I was going to soccer practice at Five, and I took a detour to see what was going on.

It was a 2-story house, with concrete outside walls and a shingle roof. The firemen were spraying the roof, which was emitting tons of smoke. There were a significant amount of spectators on the sidewalk opposite the house. There were four big fire trucks, as well as an ambulance and several other official vehicles. This seemed like a lot for the size of the house, and the fact that he only visible flame was on a windowsill, and it didn’t look like much. The firemen didn’t seem at all stressed.

I then went to soccer practice, at a field about 4 blocks away. I had a very rough game– I had 2 or 3 epic falls (not counting all my non-epic falls), I got the ball full force in the stomach and on each of my calves, which temporarily debilitated me from running, and the ball also hit me in the thumb (It was NOT a handball) and left a blue bruise that hurts when I press on it to this very day 🙂

Later, while we were eating supper, large amounts of smoke continued to be seen from the burning house, and more trucks kept showing up. Around 8:00 a German fire truck (which makes U.S. fire trucks seem meek by comparison) came to the scene. There are some German-run fire stations here.

Next morning, I went there again and took this picture.

What made it burn for the 8+ hours that it did, and why so many fire trucks were needed we don’t know.