When Seanie and I came home from Rogue One a couple of nights ago, our street was blocked off and filled with fire trucks and police cars. It was too dark to see anything clearly, but we spotted white foam on the ground in front of the house next to us. The smell of smoke was in the air, but it was a strange, chemical odor, not the comparatively pleasant scent of wood smoke. We arrived at the tail end of the excitement, as the emergency vehicles were starting to pull away by the time we parked a block away (as close as we could get to our house) and walked home.

I've walked to the end of the block a couple of times, coming to and from work, and I think it was the house two down from us on the left. There are boards across the roof, and when you walk past that house the windows are blocked up and the smoke smell still lingers. I can't tell how bad the damage was, though. Was it some electrical short that sparked on the roof, or is there extensive internal damage hidden behind the walls? We don't know our neighbors so there isn't really anyone to ask without being intrusive, but I hope everyone is OK, and that whatever burned is replaceable.