Fire In My Apartment Building

[mrarroyo]

I live in a ten story apartment complex of which the first floor is the parking in the basement and a second floor is the main lobby/pool/gym/store. Although not a tall building it is has a very large footprint and there are 332 units.

Well this morning I was minding my own business (8:30am EST) and then kaboom! The fire alarm goes off, within minutes the fire department was there, to take care of a kitchen fire on the 5th floor north side of the building.

Well the wife took her sweet time to get ready so by the time we made it downstairs the fire had been put out and the fire trucks were packing up to leave. The following pictures give you a flavor of what was going on. Please click on the thumbnails to view the full size pictures.







No one was hurt and more than 90% of the damage is on the apartment w/ the kitchen fire. However, the fire department did take down the doors on the apartments on both sides to check if the fire had propagated. There is also some water damage on the halls. Overall an small thing but man did it wake everyone!

 

[Edwood]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrarroyo /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well the wife took her sweet time to get ready so by the time we made it downstairs the fire had been put out and the fire trucks were packing up to leave.

Always a good idea to have a :bail out bag" of necessities ready to go in case of emergencies like this fire. You could've easily been caught in the fire if it was a bad one.

Good to hear you got out OK.

And it's a good reminder to review fire escape procedures in the home. (I'm waaaay overdue)

-Ed

 

[MrSlacker]

We know where you live now bwuahahaha

btw, why are people wearing shorts and t-shirts? Its friking snowing here...

 

[ken36]

My building evacuated a few months ago. a 3 AM surprise. Some guy fell asleep while frying a steak. Don't ask me.

 

[milkpowder]

Glad no one was hurt. My friend set fire to the stove not too long ago too...

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrarroyo /img/forum/go_quote.gif

Am I allowed to laugh at the fireman?

 

[Sarchi]

Yeah...palm trees. Grrrrr. 6 inches of snow outside my window here.

T minus 1 month, 30 days.....headed to FL for most of Feb.

 

[mrarroyo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edwood /img/forum/go_quote.gif Always a good idea to have a :bail out bag" of necessities ready to go in case of emergencies like this fire. You could've easily been caught in the fire if it was a bad one. Good to hear you got out OK. And it's a good reminder to review fire escape procedures in the home. (I'm waaaay overdue) -Ed

A few years ago as part of my hurricane preparednes plan I developed an emergency kit and an evacuation kit. Both are equally important and should be reviewed periodically.

BTW, the high for today is expected to be 82 degrees Farenheit, the low was something like 68 degrees F.

 

[slwiser]

Good to here everyone is doing fine and safe. Show off for weather aren't you. Wait till that global warming hurricane season hits you that they have been talking about for the last two years that has yet to appear.

 

[Lazarus Short]

Part of emergency preparedness is having renter's insurance in place. I trust that you do.

Laz

 

[mrarroyo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lazarus Short /img/forum/go_quote.gif Part of emergency preparedness is having renter's insurance in place. I trust that you do. Laz

I always call it an apartment but it is a condo. So yes I have homeowners and Windstorm insurance.

 

[uzziah]

the fire trucks were LEAVING by the time your wife was ready to go? are you ****ing kidding me? it'd be funny if it wasn't potentially life threatening..........

 

[Chickenman]

grr.. its cold even here.. SoCal. it rained like there was not tomorrow on friday and you guys get sun??

 

[plainsong]

Something similar happened in our old apartment building, we were on the 4th floor of a 6 story walk-up in central Helsinki. It was Easter, and most of the people were out of the building, gone to their vacation homes in the country. Only us, the nextdoor neighbor, and our upstairs neighbor whom we nicknamed Clumpy because of how we walked around. Clumpy did weird stuff but was mostly harmless, we never made any complaints about him. No, we did make one, the same one everyone else made one Christmas - he passed out with the radio at 50,000decibles. Mostly, we were just amused by his Master P impressions at 4am on weekends. "Uhhhhhhhh!"

So anyway, that Easter Clumpy started some construction. We had no idea what the hell he was building up there, but he stopped at night, and apparently stored the huge rented tools, like cement drills and stuff, in his linen closet. He then, as per usual boozed it up to begin the Master P impressions later that night.

We didn't know or care about the boozing up part, but the reason it matters is that around 11pm, we were really tired and going to make an early night of it. While getting ready for bed, there was this smell of smoke. We thought it was an old lamp touching the lampshade so my husband figured that was that for that old lamp. Then while brushing my teeth, I thought "No, it's in the bathroom too, this isn't the lamp."

I came out to find my husband already caught on and had opened the door. Smoke was billowing down the stairs. The nextdoor neighbor had already sprung into action, rescued a passed out and ungrateful Clumpy, and called the fire department. He was saying to my husband that the ******* was angry at him for his efforts.

So the firemen came and we had to all come downstairs in our 'jammies . They got out the hoses and the huge fans, and opened Clumpy's window to see thick black smoke just pouring out. We don't know how bad the fire was, but we got to see the remains of Clumpy's linen closet taken out. He had Disney sheets.

The head of the fire brigade said if we'd all just ignored it, thinking it would snuff itself out, the entire building would have gone up. It was an old building as most of those places in Punavuori, built in the twenties.

We moved later that year, so we don't know what happened with Clumpy. Certainly inspectors have to check the building integrity and fire investigations are just a matter of course, and that costs, and I don't think the house managers would have given Clumpy a free pass just because "Oh you were drunk, that's ok."

So Clumpy, wherever you are, thanks for the entertainment and we salute you.