Fire Alert

I jumped out of my seat and rushed to investigate the smell of smoke in the house.  Was there a fire inside?  It was late afternoon and I was confronted with a heavy blanket of smoke billowing over the fence and rolling south.  I stepped outside with the heavy smell of burning and was unable to ascertain where the smoke was coming from and whether it was some annoying neighbour burning green waste or worst.  The smoke died down and I went inside only to hear a helicopter almost overhead.  Outside I went again and checked out the whirlybird.  It was stationary,  not a good sign because we all know it's a TV station checking out a news item.  An ambulance without sirens later passed our house.
I wondered if it was a bush fire (not likely as it's mid-winter and we don't have much bush close by) or a house fire.  I had not heard any sirens but I realised we had not been home long.  I had been helping Mel tidy and clean her bedroom.  She was well today and wanted to go home. 
The smoke dispersed and soon my mind turned to other less interesting thoughts.  The news tonight was the regular negative stories and then it was there, right in our lounge room.  A house had caught fire in our suburb, not so far away from us and suffered $400,000 damage.  The news story had an aerial view of its fire ravaged roof.  Oh, yes that helicopter! The house was severely damaged and will need to be demolished and rebuilt.  No one was hurt in the fire and the report said the woman occupant was taken to hospital and treated for shock.  I am pleased she is unhurt and the community rallied to assist her.