So. My apartment building caught fire.
I got up this morning and was standing in front of the mirror getting ready to wash my face when I heard the fire alarm. devilducky and I keep our bedroom door closed which means the alarm is barely audible from there. We've had a couple of false alarms here recently. Evidentially this is because people have been airing out the smoke from burning food by opening their front doors so that the smoke can escape into the hallway. WHERE THE SMOKE DETECTORS FOR THE ALARM SYSTEMS ARE.
Anyway, I shambled to the patio door in my underwear so that I could look outside and was stunned to see smoke. BILLOWING SMOKE. I put on my favorite jeans and my favorite hoodie, crammed the cat into a cardboard box (I completely spaced that his carrier was in FULL VIEW in the kitchen) and dashed down the stairs and out into the rain. My car was in the parking garage so I moved it into the lot to let the cat roam the backseat while I stood outside with my neighbors. By this time the billowing smoke had turned into BLACK billowing smoke and smelled vaguely like burning plastic. The fire department came. And then fire departments from two neighboring towns came. We were eventually herded into the building party room once the fire was contained and were told that the fire department would need about another hour to get everything sorted out, that the Red Cross was coming to help people who would not be able to return to their homes. A woman who lived near the source of the fire had just had surgery and wasn't able to catch her cat - she had no idea whether or not it had managed to survive since there had been so much smoke in her apartment. When a fireman brought her cat to her she couldn't stop crying. One of the maintenance guys even cried. Apparently my apartment complex is full of crazy cat people because a bunch of us kept finding ourselves comparing stories about the mad dash to contain our animals. I was fortunate in that Bob had not seen me yet that morning, so I was in the middle of the standard Morning Velcro Kitty Routine when I realized what was happening ("Hello, yes, I love yo-HOLY SHIT GET INTO THIS BOX NOW PLEASE").
The family who lived in the unit were totally devastated, understandably.
Our apartment is far enough from the source that we didn't get any damage. It is a touch smoky in here and the halls still smell but other than that we are fine. They are still investigating to determine what started the whole thing but everyone sort of suspects it was a kitchen fire. There are three units that are for sure uninhabitable and probably more like nine total that are damaged or otherwise too smoky for people to stay in currently.
It was a crazy morning.
I got up this morning and was standing in front of the mirror getting ready to wash my face when I heard the fire alarm. devilducky and I keep our bedroom door closed which means the alarm is barely audible from there. We've had a couple of false alarms here recently. Evidentially this is because people have been airing out the smoke from burning food by opening their front doors so that the smoke can escape into the hallway. WHERE THE SMOKE DETECTORS FOR THE ALARM SYSTEMS ARE.
Anyway, I shambled to the patio door in my underwear so that I could look outside and was stunned to see smoke. BILLOWING SMOKE. I put on my favorite jeans and my favorite hoodie, crammed the cat into a cardboard box (I completely spaced that his carrier was in FULL VIEW in the kitchen) and dashed down the stairs and out into the rain. My car was in the parking garage so I moved it into the lot to let the cat roam the backseat while I stood outside with my neighbors. By this time the billowing smoke had turned into BLACK billowing smoke and smelled vaguely like burning plastic. The fire department came. And then fire departments from two neighboring towns came. We were eventually herded into the building party room once the fire was contained and were told that the fire department would need about another hour to get everything sorted out, that the Red Cross was coming to help people who would not be able to return to their homes. A woman who lived near the source of the fire had just had surgery and wasn't able to catch her cat - she had no idea whether or not it had managed to survive since there had been so much smoke in her apartment. When a fireman brought her cat to her she couldn't stop crying. One of the maintenance guys even cried. Apparently my apartment complex is full of crazy cat people because a bunch of us kept finding ourselves comparing stories about the mad dash to contain our animals. I was fortunate in that Bob had not seen me yet that morning, so I was in the middle of the standard Morning Velcro Kitty Routine when I realized what was happening ("Hello, yes, I love yo-HOLY SHIT GET INTO THIS BOX NOW PLEASE").
The family who lived in the unit were totally devastated, understandably.
Our apartment is far enough from the source that we didn't get any damage. It is a touch smoky in here and the halls still smell but other than that we are fine. They are still investigating to determine what started the whole thing but everyone sort of suspects it was a kitchen fire. There are three units that are for sure uninhabitable and probably more like nine total that are damaged or otherwise too smoky for people to stay in currently.
It was a crazy morning.
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Glad you're all right and that your stuff is, too.