"Up In Smoke"

Last night, or what would be around the "Witching Hour", 3:00 am (ish~~~and don't tell me that it is midnight, because that is a fallacy), Adam was driving home from work. Near Wellesly, Ontario, he came across a barn on fire. He was the first to the scene, he called 911 from his cell phone and directed the police and fire departments to the scene. The barn had burnt down practically by the time he drove by. A Mennonite man joined him pounding on the door of the nearest farm house, which happened to be vacant. From television reports, the loss was substantial. Thank goodness no lives were lost human or animal. I remember when we did the drive together a few years ago. It was either in Petersburg or St. Agatha where, around the same hour we encountered a huge barn fire. Fire crews were already on the scene dousing the inferno. I remember being awestruck by the huge timber frame skeleton falling into the onyx night. I rememember seeing a huge beam fall through the air like it was a lit match. The heaving, breathing sound of the barn could be heard through our windows. What had stood for over a hundred years was reduced to ashes and cinders. What had been constructed with hand hewn nails and hand planed boards, communal sweat equity - a piece of history, was disappearing in the dead of night. The dramatic fire, had brought onlookers, and close neighbours and passersby, who could do absolutely nothing for the building. The fire was so hot and the sparks flew so far, that people were wetting down nearby houses. I remember driving by the land after the fire, and it seemed like this barn had never existed. Nothing remained of what was, except a large empty lot. What that barn had seen; the changing from candlelight to electricity, horse and buggy to the Model T, dirt road to highway was lost to an inferno that I will never forget. But energy is never lost or gained - it only transfers.