Crisis at 2am

My house is at the end of a cul-de-sac and we only have neighbours on one side. On the other side is a footbath and drain that runs along the back of all the houses and provides pedestrian access between our street and the cul-de-sac on the other side of the drain. Last night about 2am we were woken by a loud "pop" and fizzing noise. When we looked outside we could see a bright red glow. I went into the back yard and saw that my neighbours roof was on fire. I'm not sure how I did it (I can't remember!) but somehow I was over the fence and banging on my neighbours doors and windows to wake them up and get them out of the house. They woke up and called the fire brigade but the firies are a volunteer service up here and we knew they would be some minutes away. I got the neighbours hose and started to hose the roof from the backyard - not an easy thing. There was smoke everywhere and we thought the fire must have been inside the roof cavity. Then we couldn't see the flames anymore. The neighbour went into his manhole but couldn't see any fire - and no smoke. We became very confused. I was standing in my neighbours backyard at 2am hosing their roof (and no fire) wearing only underpants and a t-shirt and bare feet. The ridiculousness of the scene was not lost on me! Then the smoke was gone from the backyard too. Steve, the neighbour, finally was the one to do some thinking and worked out it was a flare that had been set off. The pop and fizz and bright red glow all made sense. It had landed on my neighbour's roof and burnt itself out. I sort of felt a bit silly after banging on their doors and windows like a goose at 2 o'clock in the morning. But at the time I really thought their roof was on fire. Then the police and firies arrived - but it was all over by then. By 3am I was back in bed but sleep was a long time coming. My feet were bruised where I had jumped the fence and landed on gravel. I'm a big girl and I still don't know how I managed it. I know you don't muck around with fires (the house on the other side of the drain burnt down a couple of months ago - the charred shell is still there) so I acted immediately. Kind of good to know I was able to think semi-clearly at the time of a crisis. I didn't wake up again until 7am - too late for a run!

That's my excuse for missing my run.

This morning we found the flare container in our backyard. It had been fired from the laneway by the drain and flown over our house to land on the roof of our neighbour. It could have landed on something more flamable and then we would have had problems!

*edit*
The police just arrived again at the neighbours place. I gave them the flare container. They said this type of activity was common because nearly everyone has a boat and the flares are left in the boats where they are easily accessible to youngsters who want to cause problems. They inspected the damage to the neighbour's roof and there IS a hole in the roof from the flare. My hosing HAD stopped the flare burning the roof cavity. I feel kind of vindicated.