The Story of the Christmas Tree Fire

It was a normal summer day. Mom was at work at the Hotel and Dad was at work at the V.A. I was about 12 or 13 years of age or maybe younger but I was left in charge of my sisters. This was a normal part of life in the 50’s. I was the eldest and was responsible for their safety. Mom was always reminding me that I had to set a good example for my sisters. I guess you could say I had few moments of just being a kid. The only times that I can remember being a child was when the neighbors came down to play and Mom was at home. When I was charge of my siblings, I was instructed to keep them around the home area and do things that Mom would have done if she was home and this would include discipline. It was a hard job for a young girl. Most times my sisters resented me and considered me bossy. I guess I was, but I had to be. But sometimes a kid will be a kid and this was one of those days.

We had been watching “Heidi” with Shirley Temple on the television. In one scene, there was a Christmas tree but instead of lights, the movie had used candles in the branches. We all thought that was cool, but we wondered how they kept the candles straight up on the branches. It just so happened that we had an old Christmas tree decoration that stood about 12 inches tall. On the branches with these metal cup shape holders which could hold something, but we couldn't figure what. Then we understood what it could hold, candles!

We decided to try placing candles in the small tree just to see what it looked like. But where could we get the candles? Fire was one rule that was not allowed, and as the adult of the group, I had to make sure that no matches or lighters were ever used, especially since we were home alone. But suddenly I was the kid with a kid’s curiosity.

I remembered that we had birthday candles in the drawer. I would like to inform the reader the lay out of the living room where our demonstration or experiment was to take place. My parent’s bedroom was to the left of the room. Next to their bedroom door was the front door of the house. On the wall next to the door was a picture of my father’s brother, Ned. It was his graduation picture. He had been killed during WWII by the Japanese, but that is another story. Below the picture was the television. Next to the television, there was the front window with lace curtains. Below the window stood a two shelf bookcase which housed the complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica. The encyclopedia was a huge investment for us children and Mom would remind us on how much it cost for these books. Whenever we asked Mom a question she would say, “Look it up in the encyclopedia.” But the encyclopedia was extremely hard to understand. If we looked something up for a school assignment, we didn’t understand the words. Therefore we would write the information, verbatim, on our homework paper. Of course we would not get credit since it was not in our own words. We didn’t know about plagiarism at this time, but how we hated that encyclopedia. On top of the bookcase was a fish bowl with 2 goldfish and a one of Dad’s motorcycle trophies. Next to the bookcase, in the corner, was a floor lamp with a yellowing lamp shade.

We removed the trophy but kept the gold fish bowl on the book case. We got the Christmas tree out of storage and set it next to the fish bowl. Then we got the birthday candles out of the drawer and set them in the holders. The holders were larger than the candles, so we were careful in putting the candles on the tree. Then we got the matches and lit the candles. I must admit it was beautiful, but I also knew how dangerous it was if the lit candles slipped in the holders. After a few minutes, we blew out the candles. Now we had to decide how to get rid of the used candles. We didn’t want Mom to find out that we had been playing with fire, literally. My sister came up with the idea of melting the candles away, to destroy of evidence.

Terry got Dad’s big ashtray and we placed all the candles inside the ashtray and we lit the candles once again. But when candles are lying on the side, they don’t burn as they should. To speed up the melting process, Terry started fanning the candles with her hand. Unfortunately, in her fanning process, her hand caught hold of the lace curtain and up it went in flames. The flames traveled up the curtain and across the top of the window to the other curtain and later to the lamp shade. You can imagine the terror that the four of us girls had at that time. The two youngest girls started screaming. I don’t remember where they went but Terry and I both knew that we had to get the fire out. Water! The closest water was in the fish bowl so we started scooping out the water and throwing it on the flames. When the water got low enough we had to find another source. I ran into the kitchen, got the biggest pan I could manage, filled it with water and ran into the living room. I poured the water on the flames and ran back to repeat this process. Very soon the floor was wet from the thrown or spilled water. On my third trip, I slipped. My feet went out in front of me, I went down on the wet floor on my butt, and the water went straight up and come straight down on top of me. I couldn’t help but start laughing. For a second I really forgot about the emergency we were having.

I returned for more water, and again dosed the flames. In the last trip for water, I noticed that the fire was out. I turned around to see my sister at the desk where the telephone was located. She was on the phone calling the fire department. I heard her say, “Hurry, hurry! We have a fire at our house!” Then she hung up. Now that the fire out, I again turned into the responsible adult. I told her that she did a good job but she forgot one thing. We forgot to give the fire department our address. Now she was mad at me for criticizing her. I was probably blaming her for catching the curtains on fire, so I guess she had a right to be mad at me. After all she was scared.

I quickly looked at the damage. The fish had soot in their bowl with very little water for them to survive. The book case showed some fire damage but the bindings on some of the books were completely destroyed. The curtains were gone. The lamp shade showed a lot of damage too. There was no way to hide this damage from mother when she returned home. So I decided that the best course of action was to call her at work and inform her of the activities at the house. I informed her that we had had a fire, that it was out, and no one was hurt. This was the responsible thing to do, plus she couldn’t spank me over the telephone lines.

I don’t remember her actual reaction, but when I hung up I felt good about myself. About 30 minutes later, my sisters and I were trying to clean things up as best we could, when a car pulled into the driveway. A man got out of the car and walked into the house. I was quite disturbed that a strange man just walked into our house. Who did he think it was! He checks out the fire damage. He felt the wall on both sides of the window and above the window and the ceiling. Then he proceeds to go upstairs to my bedroom, which I shared with Terry. Our bedroom was right above the living room and therefore above the area where the fire was located. He checks the floor and the wall. Now I was angry. A strange man walked into my bedroom! How could he!!

A little while later, Mom came home from work. I was still angry about the man in my bedroom. I told her that a strange man came into our house and went upstairs. She informed me that he was the Fire Chief. He worked at the hotel and was the bartender there. She had asked him to come out and check to see if the house was safe from the fire and to make sure that there was no fire still remaining in the walls, smoldering. He was also asked by Mom, to give us a good lecture and if possible a spanking. She reminded us that we were very lucky. Mom got a new lampshade, new curtains, but the encyclopedia remained in the fire damaged condition for many, many years.

The lesson is obvious: Children should never, never play with fire, but from my point of view, I also learnt that even in the worst situation, there is always something to smile about.