I am lucky to be here today (long)

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Okay that may seem a bit dramatic but that is the way I feel right now after this early mornings events. We were woken up at about 2am this morning by fireman knocking at our door it turned out that some idiot had decided that they were going to have a bonfire in the empty house next door. They had piled all the furniture, including a leather suite, up in the hall and set it alight. The fireman told us that the smoke was drifting into our loft so they needed to check it out. When they did we were told that the loft was so full of smoke that they could not even see the wall.They also told us to open all the windows wide to let the smoke out as the house was filling with smoke as well. By this time our three children were awake and wondering what was happening. Luckily enough my partner who is not a good sleeper at the best of times was actually awake when this all kicked off. The fireman did tell us that there was a possibility that we would have to evacuate the house so my partner rang his sister who came straight round to see if everything was okay. She did offer to take the children home with her but by this time we had been given the all clear and the children were drifting back off to sleep so we did not want to disrupt there sleep any more so we decided to keep them with us. Apart from watery eyes and a bit of coughing we were all fine thank goodness. My partner refused to go back asleep as he was worried about them coming back and doing it again so he sat up all night eventually going to bed at about 8am this morning when me and the children woke up. I also could not get to sleep either and we ended up sitting up watching telly till about 4.30am when I decide to throw myself on the sofa to try and have a sleep. I ended up taking a sleeping pill something I thought I would never have to do in my life as I usually have no trouble falling asleep. But I know I had to get some sleep as I needed to be awake for the children in the morning. The reason I could not sleep was that all sort of what ifs were running through my head What If they hadn't caught it in time we might have not woke up this morning?. What if someone had not called the fire bridge? My thoughts also turned to my two eldest sons in England (we are on holiday in Ireland at the moment) how would they have coped if they lost their mum and step dad having already lost one parent. The strange thing is that we were actually planning to go out Saturday night and my partner's sister was going to babysit but something made us change our minds and we didn't go in the end. I am glad we didn't as his sister is not good in a crisis and she would have probably panicked. Looking out this morning it also looks like they were trying to burn our car out as well as there is burnt rags lying on the ground at the back of the car luckily enough the petrol cap can only be opened by a switch in the inside of the car. We also think that one of our neighbours came out and shouted at them which seemed to scare them away from the car . That is the closest I have ever been to a fire and I never want to be that close again. It really makes you think about things.