fire at 301-C

So, tonight Justin and I got a first-hand view of what our third-story, on-the-corner apartment would look like if it were on fire.

It would look just like this:



We arrived home this afternoon and saw some funny smoke just starting to come from the apartment building next to ours, which doesn't seem all that out-of-the-ordinary since people are barbecuing in this nice weather.  Still, it looked a little weird, so I pointed it out to Justin, and he commented that it smelled just like those little firework-worms we used to get around the fourth of July as kids.  Then we heard people start screaming and banging on doors, so we dropped our stuff inside our apartment, called 9-1-1, and headed over.

It's amazing how complete strangers help each other when something crazy happens.  The fire engulfed the apartment's front door, and we found out later that a girl in her twenties helped pull a trapped person out of a window when the fire first began.  On the other end of the building, people helped carry an elderly man down the stairs during the evacuation.  Everyone got out safely, no one was hurt.

Standing a small distance away to avoid getting in the way of the fire crew once they arrived, we were watching with all our neighbors when a man came up to us and asked us what was going on.  We pointed and said the fire had started about fifteen minutes ago, but it looked like they had it under control.  Squinting, he said, "That's my house," and his knees began to shake.  Not a great way to arrive home from work.

We stopped by a few minutes ago, and fortunately, all the damage was at the front door, possibly ignited by the dryer (see, Mom, you didn't make me completely paranoid about running the dryer when I'm not home... you made me smart).  Everything else in the apartment was ok, including the mail sitting in the keyholder in the front doorway.  Kind of amazing after all that flame.  The man seems to be keeping a good perspective on all of this, realizing it could have been much, much worse.

Fire freaks me out.  I never really thought about it much until someone did this (on purpose) to my brother's house the day before my wedding:








Sick.  All five roommates lost everything to fire or looters.

I am happy for our neighbor that this was a different situation and almost all of his stuff was spared.  We like to say stuff isn't important, but the reality is that it hits pretty hard when you lose all of it in fifteen minutes.  The fire inspector said that if they'd arrived five minutes later, the whole apartment would have gone up.

Anyway, nice reality check.  I find myself grateful for my home and my little family... and for the safety of the neighbors I never met before today.