The Fire Essay, Research Paper

The day started out as your typical summer morning of a teenager, trying to sleep in late. Little did I know that I would soon be involved in an incident that would forever change my outlook on life. As usual, I was spending the night at my friend Sarah Hall s house. The night before, Sarah s mom, Barbara, had told us that she and her husband were going to leave in the morning to help a friend.

I remember the door opening slowly, allowing the bright hallway light to enter the room. Barbara shook me lightly and said, Kendra, time to get up. You and Sarah need to eat some breakfast and get ready for a new day. I wish I had listened to her; things might have been different.

Not five minutes after I heard the car pull down the driveway, I was awakened by the sound of breaking glass from the living room. My first instinct was that someone was breaking into the house. Instinct changed to fear when I looked up and saw the evil gray, thick smoke that could have been my doom.

In shock, I reached over and told Sarah to wake up. Her eyes flew open at the tone of my voice and her look changed to absolute terror when she saw the smoke. She screamed at the top of her lungs, Daddy! Daddy! just as I reminded her that we were home alone. The first thing that came to my mind was getting out or we were going to die.

Sarah ran for the door that led to the kitchen and opened it allowing a trail of fire to come in on the ceiling, igniting a picture on the opposite wall. I screamed, Shut the door! She then slammed it cutting off the fire s oxygen. At this point, I knew that we were going to die our escape routes had been cut off.

As one, we turned towards the forgotten window, the only way out. Unfortunately, Sarah s dad had painted the window shut, so Sarah broke the pane with her arm. We cleared the broken glass and escaped into the backyard.

For the next three days, watching ourselves splashed all over the television with bandaged arms and the shell of the house behind us, made me realize how quickly life can change and to not take anything for granted.