Always at this time of year!

I know there are house fires at all times of the year, but it seems you hear about them more at this time of year.
Tonight (as I was doing my roots ... you should see the gray!) the phone rings; Bart answers, and the next thing you know he's high tailing it out the door with Terry behind him. His Dad had called because he heard on the scanner there was a fire with people trapped two courts from us. So there I am, waiting for my 10 minutes to be up to get the stuff out of my hair and I hear them squeal out of the parking lot. I then ran upstairs, quickly rinsed my hair (before the 10 minutes), threw on scrubs and a turtleneck, grabbed my stethoscope, portable neb, meds, and gloves, and was out the door. I too hauled you know what out of the parking lot to be greeted by car after car that was driving to watch! I just laid on the horn and hit the gas ... what did I care? My car still needs work and I wasn't going to watch!
There were people lined up both sides of the street as I pulled into the next court up and into a parking spot. There was a fire engine there tapped into the hydrant to hit the house from the side (it was an end unit townhouse). I grabbed some gloves, shoved them in my pocket, stethoscope around my neck and took off running towards the smoke. I got to the house and couldn't believe my eyes ... one the people just standing watching (call me weird, but I found that disrespectful to the family who's home was on fire.), and two the hole where a window use to be in the upstairs bedroom. I noticed that the fire fighters were walking back to the trucks, taking off there helmets, etc so I walked up to the closest truck to inquire about the situation. Luckily working at the hospital, I've met a lot of the fire/rescue people due to working in the ED. The informed me that it was over, there were just a few people in making sure it was definitely out and also checking out the house next door (thankfully it didn't spread).

The unfortunate part is a child (age 15) died, his twin brother with a mental handicap started the fire (he's known for starting fires). I hate hearing things like this no matter the time of year, but around the holidays it always makes it so much harder!