There aren’t going to be any brilliant insights or anecdotes in this post – at least I don’t think there will be.
So as you can probably tell from the picture above… that’s my apartment building going up in smoke (and flames). A fire had started in the apartment above mine, and continued to burn upwards through the building. The lady living in that apartment sadly passed away, may she rest in peace.
I still can’t believe that 911 put me ON HOLD for 2 minutes. I can’t believe that the journalists got there before the fire department. I still also can’t believe that everything in my apartment is probably drenched/damaged from a combination of water and smoke.
Luckily, I have some awesome friends (thanks J) and some awesome neighbours (thanks J).
Hopefully they’ll let everyone back in tomorrow to see what the damage is, and recover what’s left.
Something that was interesting to me was how I reacted when I realised what was happening. I picked up the phone, dialled 911, then got the heck out of there. I didn’t grab a jacket, any cash or my passport. I simply had my mobile in my pocket and ran out. I guess my “survival strategy” is fairly short and uncomplicated. In retrospect, maybe I should have taken my laptop, a coat, some cash and ID papers… but the instinctive thing to do was to get out of the building as soon as possible.
As I said, it’s been a crazy day.
- Aaron P
