The Fire

      So here's the story. This happened Sunday morning.

     From my basement kitchen window I can see the apartment building across the grass, there's a sidewalk in the middle and it's really very close. Well, I made myself breakfast and was sitting at my kitchen table. I looked out the window and saw flames about a foot or so high in the kitchen of the basement apartment in the building across the way.

     Without having to think about it since the flames seem to originate from a high surface and not the floor, I knew it was a stove fire. However I did not see any movement in the apartment, so the tenants could have been sleeping, out of the room, or out of the apartment altogether.

     Now the rest of my family is just getting up so my husband and daughter are still groggy and my son is in the front room asleep still. I look out the window again and now the flames are much higher and the whole kitchen is glowing.

     I run to the bedroom and tell my husband " there's a fire" and I point out the window, he looks at me and says " What?" I say " There's a fire in the kitchen across the street" and I again point to his window, he still does not look out the window but gets up and follows me out of the room on his way to our kitchen.

     The phone is in the living room where my son is and I yell to him, " There's a fire in the next apartment building, give me the phone, hurry. My son gets up and instead of handing me the phone he starts running around in a circle looking for it. They usually leave the handset off the hook but it was on the hook this morning. He dials 911 and reports the fire.

     While he is on the phone my husband goes out the back door to the next building but stops short because by now the tenants were putting it out. Since he refused for some reason to look out the windows where I told him to, he never saw the flames. He comes back in and says there's no fire it's out.

     My son tell the dispatcher that the fire has been put out, not to come. The dispatcher keeps questioning him with, "why should we not come, you said flames were shooting out the window", he says it was a stove top fire and it's out, there is no fire, it was a mistake calling you". The dispatcher continues to badger him about why is he now saying there is no fire and not to come". He finally just hangs up, aggrevated.

     Within two minutes the police are at our door and when my husband opens it, they just walk right in. My son get up and tries to explain to them what happened. Now the fire truck and paramedics come and are directed by the first cop where the fire was.

     In the meantime my family is yelling at me for panicking and making them call 911 for no reason, and that I made the whole town respond to nothing. I tried to explain that's the reason I went to my husband first and pointed out the window so he could gauge the situation. He then says to me that I incorrectly told him it was the building across the street and it really was the building across the back grassy area. I yelled back that all he had to do was look out the freakin window I was pointing at. My son was livid that I made him call 911 for nothing. I told him all he had to do was hand me the phone like I first asked him to.

     I tried to tell them I was not panicking I was just trying to get them to look and cooperate which neither of them would do. Since neither of them saw the actual flames I must have seen a little bit of fire and panicked. I told them I saw fire, I saw no one putting it out so it was right to call 911. They say I panicked, exaggerated and was wrong. Was I wrong or right? Help please I need some backing here!