Oh look

A little extra excitement at rehearsal this evening.

I think I’ve mentioned a time or two (or three) that I lead the handbell choir at my church and perform with a semi-professional (meaning we don’t get paid) handbell ensemble. I’ve been playing bells since middle school and have had a lot of great experiences around bells.

Our rehearsal area at the church is in the basement, about a half-floor below ground. Four of us were working on bell quartet music. One looked out the windows and said, “Oh look, a fire truck.” Though we hadn’t seen fire trucks in the church parking lot, there is a firehouse directly across the street.

A moment later, “Look, another fire truck.” A few moments after that the lights went out. That was disappointing because we had canceled last week’s rehearsal because the church had lost power in an ice storm (this is Michigan and ice storms happen in April).

One of the other ringers, who is an employee at the church, used her cell phone as a flashlight. She saw some boy scouts at the other end of the basement heading up the stairs. We did too and were told it might be a good idea to gather coats and evacuate. So we did, joining the boy scouts in the parking lot.

Once outside we could smell smoke and burned plastic. A light fixture was smoldering. This is a fixture high on the outside wall. A bird had built a nest in the fixture and it caught on fire from the heat of the bulb. The lights went out because the fire department shut off the power. They didn’t want to spray water on live wires.

Soon the fire guys got out a hose and sprayed water on the fixture. A few minutes later another guy used his infrared sensor to verify it was out. He then went inside to verify that wires in the wall hadn’t caught fire.

As the firemen packed up the property manager came over to say the power was going to be left off overnight. We wouldn’t be able to resume rehearsal. So we went home.