Fire At Mamoo Ray's

My Daddy was the volunteer Fire Chief for the Alturas Fire Department. One night, he got a call about a fire that needed his help. We girls were home and decided to drive behind Daddy and see where it was. Well, we followed him to Lake Garfield. Around the lake and up in the distance you could see the fire. When we got near the fire, to our shock, we realized it was Mamoo Ray's two story house. We turned around and rushed home to get mother and bring her to be with Granddaddy and Mamoo. Oh, what a hot fire. Mamoo and Granddaddy and Ralph and Bertha Gay all lived together. They all got out with their sleeping clothes on. The fire started with faulty wiring in the attic where Mamoo had all her stuff stored. Mamoo sat in our car and just stared with tears in her eyes. She was a quiet spoken person and she had to sit there and watch all her stuff burn up. The wooden house got so hot, Daddy had to back off. The Bartow Fire Dept came too and everyone had to back off and let it burn. They watered down the houses beside the burning house. Finally Daddy and The Bartow Fire Dept used a long pole and pushed down the fireplace and brick chimmey and we watched it burn. It was so hot, the area smoked for days. The daughters of Mamoo bought them a mobile home in Alturas and they moved there to live the rest of their lives.

Eddie's First Father's Day

We were living in New Mexico in a duplex across from the Alamorgordo High School. Debbie was a few months old. The Saturday before Father's Day, we decided to go to the drive-in after supper. I had put a big pot of baby bottles and nipples and stuff to boil on the little stove in the kitchen. I couldn't see the burner because the pot was so big. We went to the movie and I forgot I had put the pot on to boil. When we got home from the movie, the apartment was standing wide open and all the window were open. In the living room there was a note taped on the kitchen chair from the Fire Department:

There was a kitchen fire. Your neighbor reported it. We put it out and got most of the smoke out of the house. Any questions, call the Fire Department.

The kitchen walls were black with soot. Needless to say, we were so upset. What a stupid thing for me to do. So the next day, Father's Day, Eddie spent the whole day washing down the walls and repainting the kitchen. He was such a good guy. Nothing in the kitchen had burned except the pot of rubber nipples and bottles. All the burned baby stuff was laying in the kitchen sink. I guess the rubber burning is what made all the smoke.