While at work on a late afternoon in February, 2008, I got a call from Melissa.
She told me she had just arrived home from school and that there was a lot of
smoke in our townhouse. Not sensing anything urgent, I asked her if she could
tell where it was coming from. She said she had walked around and couldn't
tell. While we were on the phone, a maintenance worker came to the door and
told her to get out, that the townhouse next door to ours was on fire. She
asked me about the pets; I asked her if she could get them out. She said they
were both right there, so yes. I told her to put them in the car.
At that point, I made arrangements to leave work early, pick up Mary, and then go home. Melissa called me a second time and said she had been moved to the apartment complex's community center and had the animals with her. She said there were a lot of fire trucks there.
While driving to pick up Mary, I felt strangely calm about all this. I seriously wondered if we had a home anymore and how much of our possessions were lost. But I didn't feel stressed at all. At least we knew to expect a parking lot full of fire trucks when we arrived.
We parked at the community center and I walked to our townhouse. The smoke and flames were gone by this point and the firemen were cleaning up. The front window of the townhouse next to ours was smashed out from firefighting efforts. Inside, the kitchen was completely destroyed. It had been an empty townhouse; maintenance workers were preparing it for the next tenant. One had left something sitting on a hot stove and gone to lunch. That's what started the fire. There was smoke damage to the rest of the townhouse, with black soot all over the place. Firemen threw the charred kitchen cabinets and stove to the lawn out front.
The firefighting effforts involved our own townhouse, since it had been full of smoke, as well as the townhouse on the other side of the burned one. Once my entry was cleared by the fire chief, a fireman escorted me into my townhouse so we could inspect it. The first thing that struck me was the smell; it was a HORRIBLE odor, unlike anything I've ever smelled before. In retrospect, it's amazing to think of how many everyday items are loaded with various chemicals; paint, cabinetry, construction materials, electrical wire insulation, flooring material, glues, etc. All of these chemicals are released when burned. The composite of all that is what we smelled.
The inspection of our home showed no fire damage. There were a couple spots where a little bit of water and soot had come through the wall, but it was easily cleaned up. Thank God for firewalls!
The real issue for us was the horrible odor. Red Cross showed up and asked us if we needed any assistance. We mistakenly believed we could air the place out for a few hours and all would be fine. But after a few hours had passed, we knew this wouldn't be the case. The apartment complex put us up in a hotel for a few nights and then gave us an empty corporate (furnished) apartment, as they did for the other family affected by this. For the next three weeks, the effort centered on getting rid of the smell in our place. I threw out a carpet from our basement. The carpets on the main and second floors were shampooed and all the surfaces were washed down. A chemical fogger was used to eliminate the smell from everything else. All of our clothes were washed. Since there was a coin-operated laundry in the basement of our corporate apartment, Mary's co-workers even took up a collection of quarters for us! That was very handy and very-much appreciated!
After all this, the odor was mostly gone, but we were still keenly aware of a minute lingering smell when we moved back in. Even after we moved to a differently apartment complex the following July, we could still smell the odor a bit on coats in our front closet.
Having a fire in my home is something I used to worry about a lot. I've never been comfortable with anyone using open flames or candles, although I have been OK with a fireplace because I feel like it's a contained situation. When we decided in 2006 to sell our "dream home" and go back to renting, the concern I had was whether our apartment would ever be affected by a neighbor's fire. With more than 100 units in the complex, I figured the odds were pretty slim. Who would have thought that of all those units, OURS would be next door to the one that burned! I HOPE this means statisically it shouldn't happpen again!
As I said at the beginning, I felt strangely calm through this whole incident. When I had the opportunity to enter the burned townhouse and look around, I was not freaked out, like I used to imagine I would be under this circumstance. My thoughts were of relief that Melissa and the pets got out safely and that no one was hurt.
As a footnote, the day of the fire was a reunion of sorts with some of the firemen. A few of these guys were the same guys that came to our townhouse 19 months earlier when Mary had her first Sudden Cardiac Arrest!
At that point, I made arrangements to leave work early, pick up Mary, and then go home. Melissa called me a second time and said she had been moved to the apartment complex's community center and had the animals with her. She said there were a lot of fire trucks there.
While driving to pick up Mary, I felt strangely calm about all this. I seriously wondered if we had a home anymore and how much of our possessions were lost. But I didn't feel stressed at all. At least we knew to expect a parking lot full of fire trucks when we arrived.
We parked at the community center and I walked to our townhouse. The smoke and flames were gone by this point and the firemen were cleaning up. The front window of the townhouse next to ours was smashed out from firefighting efforts. Inside, the kitchen was completely destroyed. It had been an empty townhouse; maintenance workers were preparing it for the next tenant. One had left something sitting on a hot stove and gone to lunch. That's what started the fire. There was smoke damage to the rest of the townhouse, with black soot all over the place. Firemen threw the charred kitchen cabinets and stove to the lawn out front.
The firefighting effforts involved our own townhouse, since it had been full of smoke, as well as the townhouse on the other side of the burned one. Once my entry was cleared by the fire chief, a fireman escorted me into my townhouse so we could inspect it. The first thing that struck me was the smell; it was a HORRIBLE odor, unlike anything I've ever smelled before. In retrospect, it's amazing to think of how many everyday items are loaded with various chemicals; paint, cabinetry, construction materials, electrical wire insulation, flooring material, glues, etc. All of these chemicals are released when burned. The composite of all that is what we smelled.
The inspection of our home showed no fire damage. There were a couple spots where a little bit of water and soot had come through the wall, but it was easily cleaned up. Thank God for firewalls!
The real issue for us was the horrible odor. Red Cross showed up and asked us if we needed any assistance. We mistakenly believed we could air the place out for a few hours and all would be fine. But after a few hours had passed, we knew this wouldn't be the case. The apartment complex put us up in a hotel for a few nights and then gave us an empty corporate (furnished) apartment, as they did for the other family affected by this. For the next three weeks, the effort centered on getting rid of the smell in our place. I threw out a carpet from our basement. The carpets on the main and second floors were shampooed and all the surfaces were washed down. A chemical fogger was used to eliminate the smell from everything else. All of our clothes were washed. Since there was a coin-operated laundry in the basement of our corporate apartment, Mary's co-workers even took up a collection of quarters for us! That was very handy and very-much appreciated!
After all this, the odor was mostly gone, but we were still keenly aware of a minute lingering smell when we moved back in. Even after we moved to a differently apartment complex the following July, we could still smell the odor a bit on coats in our front closet.
Having a fire in my home is something I used to worry about a lot. I've never been comfortable with anyone using open flames or candles, although I have been OK with a fireplace because I feel like it's a contained situation. When we decided in 2006 to sell our "dream home" and go back to renting, the concern I had was whether our apartment would ever be affected by a neighbor's fire. With more than 100 units in the complex, I figured the odds were pretty slim. Who would have thought that of all those units, OURS would be next door to the one that burned! I HOPE this means statisically it shouldn't happpen again!
As I said at the beginning, I felt strangely calm through this whole incident. When I had the opportunity to enter the burned townhouse and look around, I was not freaked out, like I used to imagine I would be under this circumstance. My thoughts were of relief that Melissa and the pets got out safely and that no one was hurt.
As a footnote, the day of the fire was a reunion of sorts with some of the firemen. A few of these guys were the same guys that came to our townhouse 19 months earlier when Mary had her first Sudden Cardiac Arrest!
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