The House That Caught on Fire

Around the time my GrandPal was starting at Shelburne High School, there was a massive storm that lasted for days. This storm was much worse than others, and he had to be careful when he went outside, or else he could get lost in the blizzard. My GrandPal did almost get lost during one outing, but he stayed calm. He had a little hill leading up to his house, so he followed it and went inside. The storm was kind of fun for my GrandPal because he didn't have to go to school and could watch TV with his dad. They watched one movie every night, from their library of about 100 movies.

One night, my GrandPal and his dad stayed up late watching TV. In the morning, they woke up to find someone in their kitchen. It was a 9-year-old girl named Helena Karpinski. She cried, “Come help!” Helena was scared and exhausted because she had run through deep snow and could have been lost, but she was still motivated to help her family. Helena's house was on fire.

My GrandPal and his dad ran with Helena back to her house, which was half a mile away. The chimney was on fire, and the fire had spread to the attic. There were no flames, but the boards were glowing red and some were even black. The fire had shorted out the electrical system, so they had no water to put out the fire. Mrs. Karpinski grabbed snow in a bucket and handed it to Vic, Helena's dad. My GrandPal's dad helped put snow on the underside of the roof with Vic.

They formed a bucket brigade, which is a line of people passing snow. They worked as hard as they could for an hour, along with the other members of the Karpinski family. The snow was hard, so the pails did not fill easily. Finally, though, the fire was out.

The Karpinskis were very thankful that my GrandPal and Arnold came to help. Everyone was exhausted, the house was cold, and my GrandPal and his dad went home feeling very good because they just saved a house from burning down. The Karpinskis had to fix the electrical system, the roof, and the floors though.

As a gift the Karpinskis bought my GrandPal a box of milk chocolate, which made him very happy, because he didn't get junk food often. They gave his dad Spanish sherry, which is a type of wine. They also put a thank-you ad in the Shelburne paper: “We want to thank our neighbours for helping us with the fire the morning of February 1956.” In the end, they were a community that worked together.