23 rd October 2016.

So...we have had a lovely weekend with Tracy and Jen here with us.They were packing up the car this morning when I heard a crackling sound and saw some smoke through the trees at our neighbours. I started to run towards it and saw that the smoke was black and thought someone must be burning tyres. I knew our neighbours were away for the weekend at a music festival. My mind was racing....were they back?...was someone burning rubbish?....and yet even though I didn't want to think it, I knew it was the house.I ran out of the trees and saw thick black smoke pouring out from under the roof and turned and ran back towards our house. It was such a shock that I could hardly get my legs working. Tracy came running down from our house and I passed her to run to the top of the slope and then I shouted to Will,"WILL! DAVE AND JEN'S HOUSE IS ON FIRE!"I ran back to Tracy and she was ringing the emergency services and she passed the phone to me just as someone asked,"What service do you require?"I was put through to the fire service and gave them the details and the address and was able to tell them that no one was home."Do they have any pets?""Just fish," I said, but they were the boys fish and they would be heartbroken.Will, arrived and he rushed up to the house to try and do something. The woman on the phone was 'saying keep out, keep away and we will be with you very shortly.'Some of the solar panels on the roof were alight."We have to keep away," I said to Will when she had gone.Will turned off the gas on the gas cylinders by the house.Tracy wondered if someone needed to be down the hill at the gate. Dave always closes the gate when they are away so I said I would go. I gave Will my phone to so he could ring Dave and Jen with the awful news and I ran down the hill and unlocked the gate.In the meantime Will tried to hose down the side of the house nearest the big water tanks and also to try and stop the mulch on the garden from catching from and spreading down the hill and setting Dave's shed on fire.There were two big water tanks by the house. The first burst and the water rushed under the house and when the second burst it went down the hill at the back behind the house.Tracy joined me down the hill. I heard a siren coming and the first to arrive were two women in an Ambulance. After the first Fire Engine went up, Tracy stayed at the bottom of the hill and I went back up.It was devastating to watch but we hoped that now the Fire Engine was there that much of the house could be saved.Jen's Mum and Dad arrived and we all stood back and watched in horror. The visible flames soon seemed to be out but smoke was still billowing out from under the roof. We watched as the Firemen smashed their way in through the sliding glass front door and decided to leave as we had Tracy and Jen packing up to go home.It was a dreadful and unexpected end to a lovely weekend with them.After Tracy and Jen had gone.  Will and I just wandered about in a daze for the hours it took Dave and Jen to get back home. When we knew they were back we couldn't wait any longer and went over to see them.They are, obviously, utterly devastated.To see their house now is heart breaking. The roof has collapsed in at one end of the house and the interior is completely black. The heat generated inside the house has charred and melted everything even though the flames never reached parts of it.Fire is terrible. Will and I feel sick and numb and are distraught that we could not do more to save our lovely neighbour's home.