Love hurts

About a year ago I fell in love with Polly- My pollytunnel ( a plastic version of a greenhouse..) Polly was my friend- and still is! Then around Christmas my love turned to Oisin... He is "hot" as "hot" as Polly!

Oisin was the best gift anyone could have wished for. For the first time since living in this house, I was able to stay warm...

But love hurts- Last night while I brought a bag of recycling material to the corner I noticed that the smoke from my chimney was very black and furious. Suspecting a chimney fire, I "ran" home and closed the damper on Oisin- my beloved stove. 

Although I can't remember the exact sequins of events, at some point I opened the door of the stove and was greeted by a huge fire inside the stove- and more worryingly, flames bellowing out towards me.
Later when I couldn't see flames in the stove I opened the door again. Wrong thing to do. There  was an almighty loud bang- an explosion almost. I "ran"  outside and called 999. 

The fire brigade came and brought the stove outside- fire still burning inside it- smoke bellowing out from the back of it- flooding my kitchen with coal dust- everywhere. All I could think of was that I was safe- I didn't care about the state of my house. Was glad I still had a house!
They cleaned the chimney from the top and the bottom, cleaned out the stove- outside in the garden, checked the attic and weren't sure what had caused the loud bang (might have been the sheet of aluminium that was behind the stove being sucked in again...)
Fire crew were lovely, they checked and checked again, and only left when they felt that all was safe again. 
My house is dirty.... Black dust everywhere. 
I left the livingroom-kitchen as it was, swept the dirt in the hallway as to not bring too much of this black stuff into my bedroom- had a bath and watched movie in bed as I couldn't sit anywhere in the living room. Horrible dry-dusty air, and black couch etc.

Had a hard time sleeping as every time I dozed off I could see that huge fire and heard the loud bang.
Jane is coming this afternoon to help me clean. For now I just have the windows open and staying out of the living room.

It was scary. The fire officer is going to get in touch with the council and get them to put in the flue pipe. Also when they were up on the attic they were horrified to see that the spotlights that are in my kitchen ceiling, and need air in the attic so as not to overheat, were covered with a thick layer of insulation.... a big fire hazard.

What a night. But I am grateful to all whom were here to sort out the problem and for my neighbour Margaret to checkup on me if I was ok; Spark for listening to my tale of woo, and Jane for coming to help me clean.
Spring clean with a difference!