Verona, Italy - November 10, 2010

On Monday morning before district meeting Sorella Mullen and I were walking down the street, when suddenly our vision was slightly obscured from some smelly haze, and we realized we were walking through smoke! And that smoke was coming off the top of this house we were walking past! It was not good. So we ran all over trying to see where the smoke was coming from. We suoned all the citofoni on the house but no one responded. Sorella Mullen was convinced they were passed out from smoke inhalation and going to die. So we called the Anziani, who gave us the number for the fire department, and we called the Italian version of 911. (except in italy there is a different one for each service - 113 for police, 115 for ambulance, and 118 for firemen). They asked us if the smoke was more white or more black, I told them it was more black and explained what it looked like, he took my name and phone number and said they would be there in ten minutes and we were to flag them down so they could find the place. Then we wait. And then we hear sirens blaring and blue lights flashing and up drives the vigili del fuoco! They come piling out of the truck with oxygen tanks and gas masks and axes and full gear. We show them the smoke. They go try to get inside. Then some people come out of the building and are wandering around. We wondered why they did not answer their citofono, because we suoned many many times before calling 118. Then we saw the vigili del fuoco up on the roof. They were inspecting the matter. They took my info from my recently obtained permesso di sogiorno. Do you want to know what it was? Wet wood inside a wood-burning heater thing. We called the firemen for wet wood. We felt quite sheepish.