I have usually been able to joke about some of the things that a child with Autism gets himself into. Read some of my other blogs for more stories. I say that humor is what gets us through each situation. However this morning humor does not apply.

We woke up at 6am to prepare for our trip to my mother's house. As I finished my last cup of coffee, I walked into the kitchen to put my mug in the sink I noticed an odd smell. "Brian, I smell something burning." "Me to it smells like plastic" he said. We checked all over the kitchen and did not find anything. "SCOTT!"

We have been using our fireplace to help cut back on our heating bill. It has by at least half. It heats the house up very nicely, and I love the smell of the fire and hearing the crackling of the wood burning. We roast marshmallows and sometimes even enjoy a hotdog every now and then. Love it!

The fireplace heats every room except for Scott's. Because of his autism, we have to keep his door locked during the night. Scott wakes up much earlier than we do (between 4 and 5 am), so to keep him safe we keep his door locked from the outside. If we did not he would wander all over the house and even attempt to get outside. Keeping his door locked is imperative! Since the heat from the fireplace is not able to reach his room, we installed a small space heater. I say installed because that is what I had to do. I could not just put it in his room and tell him "do not touch." I wish! To keep Scott from messing with it required lots of bolts and screws, as well as a crate covering it to keep him from playing with it. That was a month ago. It has been doing a great job keeping his room toasty.

So as I ran down the hall to open his door, the smell was more intense. I opened Scott's door and yelled for Brian. The smoke was thick and I could barely see Scott on the floor in front of the space heater. Scott looks up at me and says "I fire." After the few seconds it took for the smoke to fill the hallway and clear up his room, I could see that indeed the space heater had caught on fire. The unit was melted and scorched and burn marks now scar his hardwood floor.

Indeed "Our Christmas Miracle"- Scott is fine, not a burn mark on him. The only damage done was to his floor and the headaches we all had from the smell.

I wish I could say that it was due to a faulty unit. But I am comfortable saying that Scott was the cause. I believe that when he woke up at 5am he got bored. He started to play with the space heater and then saw the small vents. Vents spaced enough to fit something in. This is what I believed caused the fire.

Unfortunately I know that this will not be last of our Autism Adventures. As Scott keeps getting older and stronger, he is also growing smarter and quicker. He is thinking about things that I hope I will be able to think of and head him off on.

So keep checking Sandhills Kids for more about our Autism Adventures.

-Christine