Drama, drama, drama

What I want to know is...Why is it when I cook a grilled cheese sandwich, our fire alarm blares at top volume, but when there are 5 fire trucks sitting in front of my house putting out our chimney fire, it doesn't make a peep? I miss using our fireplace, especially since tonight is our coldest night of the season so far. On Friday as I was talking on the phone, I started to hear very loud banging noises coming from the stairwell area. Thinking the cat was either getting violent or Russ decided our bedroom upstairs needed swept and was banging the broom around with his enthusiasm; a thing that actually does happen, I checked it out. Nothing, and yet the noise continued. I got off the phone, went downstairs and told Russ something was really wrong and I didn't know what. We took the flashlight outside, shone it up to the top of our 3 story A-frame and discovered smoke oozing through the mortar of the stones. We called the fire department which ordered us out of the house immediately. By then the smoke had been joined by a large glowing ball at the top which occasionally shot out sparks on our very old, fire hazard, cedar shake roof. Not good. The first trucks to arrive could not access the chimney since it was up so high and they could not climb the roof since the pitch was so steep. They ended up sending for the Joplin ladder truck, which had a difficult time backing itself down our narrow windey driveway. When they were able to extend the ladder and climb up, they dropped a dry-chemical pack down the chimney to extinguish the fire. The firemen who arrived earlier had emptied the firebox, which had already helped a lot. I bet it was an hour before they dropped the dry-chemical. So...now we have to have the chimney cleaned and inspected before we can have any more fires and we are very sad.....and cold. The whole time, the fire alarm never said a word. Go figure. Perhaps I can coax it into action by serving grilled cheese tonight?