kaji!
I had one hell of a morning today. And the reason why involves one of the scariest things I've ever experienced.
There was a serious fire in my apartment building this morning. I was woken up from my peaceful slumber at 5 AM by the fire alarm. In my building, the fire alarm comes through the same unit that acts as the intercom for the lobby. It was a standard alarm sound, interspersed with a voice that said there was a fire in the area, and that for my safety I should kindly and promptly head out of the building. I said ok ok, grabbed my wallet and my cell phone, threw on my coat, and put on some shoes. Now, I have been through many fire alarms in many buildings over the years, but I knew this was a completely new situation to me when I opened the door - and was greeted by a blast of smoke in my face. The hallway was filled with thick, choking, acrid smoke, and I couldn't even see the other side of the hall, some 3 feet away. I'm not going to lie to you, that scared the hell out of me. I ducked back inside and closed the door, but the smoke was already starting to seep through the cracks around the door. As much as the prospect of heading out into that smoke-filled hallway, not knowing what lied beyond the smoke screen, completely terrified me, it was obvious I had no choice but to go for it. I slapped a wet towel over my face, prepared a second one and threw that in my pocket, and headed out.
Fortunately, the hallway is short and after a few blinding, choking seconds, I was in the stairwell. Very, very fortunately, the stairwell was clear. I took a deep breath and headed downstairs and outside, where a number of people had already gathered. The fire notification systems in the buildings here are pretty modern, so when a fire alarm goes off in a building like mine, the alarm will go off in neighboring buildings as well, because all the buildings are very close together. That's why the voice in the fire alarm says there's a fire in the "area", not building. So, there were a bunch of people outside. While we stood around waiting for the fire department to come, we heard a couple of small explosions which certainly did not make us feel much better. The first explosion was accompanied by a burst of light from some place we couldn't see, but with the second explosion, flames burst through a window on the side of the building, on the third floor. In the grand scheme of things this was probably a small fire, but those flames shooting out of that window looked big to me, and you could feel the heat from the sidewalk. The fire department came in their tiny little trucks probably about 5 minutes after the alarm started going off. Which seemed like an eternity...I could hear other people asking "where on earth is the FD?" while we were waiting. They scoped out the situation then roped off the area in front of the building, so I could no longer keep a direct eye on what was happening with the fire. It was cold, and I was really shook up, so I was shivering all over the place and it took me about 15 minutes to settle down.
In total there were about 10 fire trucks plus a few other emergency vehicles. And one ambulance, which it turns out they didn't need - thank god. From what I could gather from what the fire fighters were saying, the center of the conflagration was apt. 305. Apartments 306 and 405 were apparently also pretty badly damaged too. Seeing as how I'm in 606, that's not too far away. Anyway, to my surprise, they told us we could go back inside after only an hour. So at 6 AM I headed back to my apartment, which might have been too early because my room was still very smokey when I got back. I opened the front and back door and turned on any vent or fan in the apartment, and it cleared out pretty quick. I'm left with two after-effects though: my apartment reeks, and probably will for quite some time, and there's soot covering everything. I mean EVERYTHING. I first noticed it when I looked at my plastic trash can, and saw it had thick black smudges all over it. Same with the legs of my kotatsu. Upon closer inspection, every surface in the apt is covered with a fine layer black soot. 20 minutes or so after I returned, one of the fire fighters came to get my story, which was basically "I stumbled through the smoke and ran downstairs." While we were outside I could see that some people had remained inside the building and were standing out on their balconies. I'm not sure if this was by choice or if they couldn't get out, but I guess that's why the fire fighter was gathering everyone's story.
Anyway, that was about 8 hours ago now. My apartment smells and is covered with soot. The railing on the veranda has a thick layer of both soot and ash. I was told earlier this morning that someone would be coming to clean up my apartment for me, which is nice, but I'm probably still going to have a lot of detailed cleaning to do myself. In addition, I'm probably going to have to do about $50 worth of dry cleaning, which is an expense I can certainly do without at the moment. I look forward to hearing about what caused this fire. I feel bad for the guy who owned the apartment where the fire started, because I'm sure there's nothing left. But, if the fire started because he did something stupid, then screw him. That was a really scary experience, and it's going to take a long time for this smell to go away. But it obviously could have been a lot worse. I'm perfectly fine (except for the fact that when I blow my nose now, it's black...hope that stops soon), nothing in my apartment was damaged in the slightest, and at the end of the day this is only an inconvenience. A large inconvenience, but only that.
There was a serious fire in my apartment building this morning. I was woken up from my peaceful slumber at 5 AM by the fire alarm. In my building, the fire alarm comes through the same unit that acts as the intercom for the lobby. It was a standard alarm sound, interspersed with a voice that said there was a fire in the area, and that for my safety I should kindly and promptly head out of the building. I said ok ok, grabbed my wallet and my cell phone, threw on my coat, and put on some shoes. Now, I have been through many fire alarms in many buildings over the years, but I knew this was a completely new situation to me when I opened the door - and was greeted by a blast of smoke in my face. The hallway was filled with thick, choking, acrid smoke, and I couldn't even see the other side of the hall, some 3 feet away. I'm not going to lie to you, that scared the hell out of me. I ducked back inside and closed the door, but the smoke was already starting to seep through the cracks around the door. As much as the prospect of heading out into that smoke-filled hallway, not knowing what lied beyond the smoke screen, completely terrified me, it was obvious I had no choice but to go for it. I slapped a wet towel over my face, prepared a second one and threw that in my pocket, and headed out.
Fortunately, the hallway is short and after a few blinding, choking seconds, I was in the stairwell. Very, very fortunately, the stairwell was clear. I took a deep breath and headed downstairs and outside, where a number of people had already gathered. The fire notification systems in the buildings here are pretty modern, so when a fire alarm goes off in a building like mine, the alarm will go off in neighboring buildings as well, because all the buildings are very close together. That's why the voice in the fire alarm says there's a fire in the "area", not building. So, there were a bunch of people outside. While we stood around waiting for the fire department to come, we heard a couple of small explosions which certainly did not make us feel much better. The first explosion was accompanied by a burst of light from some place we couldn't see, but with the second explosion, flames burst through a window on the side of the building, on the third floor. In the grand scheme of things this was probably a small fire, but those flames shooting out of that window looked big to me, and you could feel the heat from the sidewalk. The fire department came in their tiny little trucks probably about 5 minutes after the alarm started going off. Which seemed like an eternity...I could hear other people asking "where on earth is the FD?" while we were waiting. They scoped out the situation then roped off the area in front of the building, so I could no longer keep a direct eye on what was happening with the fire. It was cold, and I was really shook up, so I was shivering all over the place and it took me about 15 minutes to settle down.
In total there were about 10 fire trucks plus a few other emergency vehicles. And one ambulance, which it turns out they didn't need - thank god. From what I could gather from what the fire fighters were saying, the center of the conflagration was apt. 305. Apartments 306 and 405 were apparently also pretty badly damaged too. Seeing as how I'm in 606, that's not too far away. Anyway, to my surprise, they told us we could go back inside after only an hour. So at 6 AM I headed back to my apartment, which might have been too early because my room was still very smokey when I got back. I opened the front and back door and turned on any vent or fan in the apartment, and it cleared out pretty quick. I'm left with two after-effects though: my apartment reeks, and probably will for quite some time, and there's soot covering everything. I mean EVERYTHING. I first noticed it when I looked at my plastic trash can, and saw it had thick black smudges all over it. Same with the legs of my kotatsu. Upon closer inspection, every surface in the apt is covered with a fine layer black soot. 20 minutes or so after I returned, one of the fire fighters came to get my story, which was basically "I stumbled through the smoke and ran downstairs." While we were outside I could see that some people had remained inside the building and were standing out on their balconies. I'm not sure if this was by choice or if they couldn't get out, but I guess that's why the fire fighter was gathering everyone's story.
Anyway, that was about 8 hours ago now. My apartment smells and is covered with soot. The railing on the veranda has a thick layer of both soot and ash. I was told earlier this morning that someone would be coming to clean up my apartment for me, which is nice, but I'm probably still going to have a lot of detailed cleaning to do myself. In addition, I'm probably going to have to do about $50 worth of dry cleaning, which is an expense I can certainly do without at the moment. I look forward to hearing about what caused this fire. I feel bad for the guy who owned the apartment where the fire started, because I'm sure there's nothing left. But, if the fire started because he did something stupid, then screw him. That was a really scary experience, and it's going to take a long time for this smell to go away. But it obviously could have been a lot worse. I'm perfectly fine (except for the fact that when I blow my nose now, it's black...hope that stops soon), nothing in my apartment was damaged in the slightest, and at the end of the day this is only an inconvenience. A large inconvenience, but only that.