Where's the Fire?

This was so bizarre and happened right after I woke up yesterday that I forgot about it until now, so here goes.

Yesterday morning, I got up around 11. It was really dark and pouring rain, which surprised me greatly. Wow, rain in Kansas in August. That's odd. Then again, rain anywhere in the midwest seems odd at this point -- we've been under severe drought conditions since early June, I believe. Maybe late May.

Anyway, Making a pot of coffee, I put my earbuds in and went about my morning internet-related chores -- checking the news, checking my email/Twitter/etc., and in the distance, I heard sirens.

Now, granted, even though Newton is a really quiet town, this isn't that uncommon. Route 50 is directly behind my house, less than half a mile away. Route 50 is a busy, busy road, so at any given time there could be cops chasing someone down or ambulances using it to speed to the hospital. As it was pouring rain, I figured there'd probably been an accident somewhere, and thought nothing else of it. The sirens got louder. Like, really loud. I stood up, looked out the window (because they sounded like they were on the street behind me), but didn't see anything. They stopped, I shrugged, and I sat back down.

A few minutes later, I heard talking outside my house. My windows are always open, so I knew whoever it was had to be fairly close. I looked out to see two cops wandering about my back yard.

Hm, that's a new one, I thought.

I walked out to the living room and looked out the window. There were two cruisers parked up the street, but a good 40 yards or so from my house. If the cops were wandering around in my backyard, they were looking for something -- or someone. Interesting.

I ventured back to my room to see the cops stop at the wooden fence at the back side of my yard, the fence that separates my back yard from the neighbors' yard behind me, and heard them yell something to the neighbors. This something sounded like "Do you have power?"

Mind you, it was raining like hell, so this didn't seem strange. I had power, of course, so I didn't think anything of it. I watched the cops move on through, walking through all the backyards of my street. Hm. Again, I shrugged, and sat back down. I couldn't have cared less; whatever they were looking for, they certainly weren't looking for me, and I didn't see anyone or anything around. I had power. Oh well.

A few minutes later, I heard more voices. Like, several of them. And really close, like on my patio. I stood up to see three firemen in full firesuits and helmets, one of them holding an ax, wandering through my backyard and looking around.

At this point, I was like okay, what the fuck is going on? Also keep in mind that it's still raining pretty good. So, I threw on a t-shirt, and while the firemen were still in my back yard, I stepped out onto the back deck.

"Anything I can help you guys with?" I asked, concerned.

"Somebody called in a fire out here somewhere," one of the firemen said. "Have you seen anything, smelled any smoke or anything like that?"

Now, granted, I'd only been awake an hour, but I'm pretty sure that in that rain, few things would still be burning even if something had been on fire.

I blinked a few times, because this surprised me. "Nope," I said. "I've only been awake for an hour or so, but I haven't seen or smelled anything."

The other two firemen were examining the backyard areas. I glanced down the row to see almost everyone out on their back porches or decks, just like me, just as confused as I was. No smoke, no fire, nothing anywhere around us.

I went back inside and locked the door before walking out to the living room to see Newton's massive new fire engine -- so large that it could barely fit down the street -- parked in front of my house and the neighbor's house. With it were two more police cruisers and the Fire Chief's long, red Ford Excursion with lights running. Most of the neighborhood's residents, despite the rain, were outside in their yards or driveways. WTF, man?

It then dawned on me that the cops weren't asking the people behind me if they had power, they were asking did you call in a fire. This is Kansas; redneck drawl is as thick out here as it is in West Virginia.

The cops talked to the firemen in the street for about ten more minutes before all of them got back into their vehicles and left. That was the last I saw, or heard, of any "fire." The rain let up for a while, but returned twice as hard as before, so if there was any sort of fire anywhere, it wasn't going to last long unless it was a crazy fire.

Never did hear of anything involving the incident, not even on the news. The action never stops here in Newton, I suppose.