In English -- iron; in French -- fer

Dear Family,

We had a most miraculous and interesting day. The main event lasted only 40 minutes, which I think is a miracle in itself.

While getting ready for church this morning, I decided I needed to iron my shirt. A rare event, I must admit. I think the last time I ironed something might be over 5 years ago. Found my iron, plugged it in and pulled out my brand new ironing board. Left the iron on the washing machine and ran back upstairs to check on the kids who were having breakfast. Not five minutes later, I went back down stairs to iron my shirt.

When I opened the door to the laundry room, I was met by a terrible burning smell. The air was hazy but there was no frank smoke. I thought, "oh no, the iron has burned the washing machine." Ran around the corner and happily found nothing. Wasn't sure where the smell was coming from but thought I had better iron my shirt fast and unplug the iron.

As I was quickly ironing my shirt, I started to hear this loud crackling sound like there was a live wire in my basement. This was slightly concerning so I followed the sound and found that it was coming from the electrical box of our house. Now, quite alarmed and concerned, I turned off the power to the house. This caused much delight upstairs as I heard the kids excitedly consider the cause of the power outage. With some trepidation, I eventually turned back on the power. Not your typical occurrence! I was quite alarmed and not very keen to leave our house for church before I understood what was going on.

My brief 911 call was transferred to the fire department, who quickly arrived with two very large red fire trucks. I think the phone call and the fire department's arrival took less than 2-3 minutes, again much to my children's delight. Six fireman later, the men were tearing apart my home checking light fixtures, outlets, and eventually opening up the electrical box to examine it.

In classic franglais, we communicated about the problem. I was reminded and will likely never forget that the word for iron in french is fer. The amazing fireman eventually were able to reproduce the terrible smell and crackling sound emanating from our electrical box. Needless to say, the offending line, where I had plugged in the "fer" is now off and we are on the hunt for an electrician to rewire our 90 year old house.

Quite an exciting day. An electrical fire, contained inside our electrical box lasting a total of 40 minutes from start to end. I have a new love and respect for our fire department. However, I hope I don't need to call on them again anytime soon.

Grateful tonight for our safety and for this miraculously interesting day.

Catherine