>Even a House Fire Couldn’t Stand in the Patriots’ Way

The other night found me standing in my cul-de-sac, watching in horror as a house two streets over burned to the ground.

It took only a minute or two for the flames to move from the upstairs windows to the roof, where they leapt forty feet into the sky. I cringed watching fiery debris rained down on the firefighters heads, heard their yelling and the distant sirens of more fire trucks as they attempted to get the blaze under control, all while window after window in the house exploded and fell to the ground. It was unbelievable how quickly the home burned.

We like to imagine that if our house catches fire, we’ll have several minutes in which to call 911 and gather our families, our pets and our most prized possessions before leaving. Now I know that’s not the case at all. Within five minutes, the entire inside of the brick house was gone.

My next-door neighbor crossed the street and stood next to me, silent. Our children surrounded us, asking questions and chiming in with their own explanations for what was happening.

“I know how fire turns pink,” 3-year-old Punky announced in my arms after listening to the older kids for a moment. “It gets higher and higher and then you put marshmallows in. And that’s what makes it turn pink.” I had to admit that the billowing clouds of smoke coming from the blaze did look a lot like fat black marshmallows in the night sky. I shuddered and thought of how easily that house could have been my own.

“Can you believe this?” another neighbor said, coming to stand beside us.

“No, I can’t,” I said. “It’s completely unreal.”

“I hope everyone’s okay,” my next-door neighbor added.

“Oh, me, too,” the other neighbor said quickly. She paused for a moment. “Did you know the Patriots just scored?” she asked quietly. “They‘re in the lead again.”

Yes, an out-of-control house fire may turn some heads, but it can’t trump the excitement of a record-setting football game on prime time television.

And that’s what makes the suburbs so… special.

This post originally appeared on Parents.com.