'Burning' Halloween House Prompts Calls To Riverside Fire Department
RIVERSIDE (CBSLA) — A Riverside house all decked out for Halloween has the entire neighborhood screaming.
"It's scary," Nevaya, 8, said. "Because there's skeletons!"
But it's not the bounty of pirate skeletons that has people calling 911, that would be due to the flames ripping through the living room.
"Last we checked, they had had five calls," Travis Long, the homeowner, said. "If someone's adamant enough, the fire department will call my cellphone and verify."
But the home Long shares with his wife Carmen is not, in fact, burning to the ground.
Long said that he has never made anything like it before, but learned how to turn some fabric, a fan and an orange light into hyperrealistic faux fire on YouTube for his Pirates of the Caribbean-themed Halloween decor.
"He's the one with the vision," Carmen said. "Now I'm just asking him to come up with a way to make it smell."
The little kids coming by to watch were spellbound by the special effects, but they think it must be all of the scared adults calling the local fire department.
"It's not that real looking," Jimmy said turning around to point at the flames.
But it is a very real labor of love that the Longs are happy to share with the community.
"Everyone else is getting to enjoy it, and that means a lot to us," Carmen said.
The home, located at the corner of Magnolia Avenue and Chapman Place in Riverside, turns on the lights every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from sunset until 9 p.m.