Fire!

Yesterday morning we watched with great sadness and empathy as a Condo right next to our apartment complex burned.  It was a weird contrast to the lovely bonfire event the night before.  We got a taste of just how destructive fire can be.  At 10:00 I was puttering around the house and smelled smoke.  I assumed it was the old gentle man who lives below us. Earl smoking his cigarettes again.  I often close to window as his smoke is wafting into our apartment.  But this time I looked out the window, saw smoke and the smell was more like a wood stove burning.  We could see the smoke billowing out of the condo units right next to our apartments and I could hear the sirens from the emergency vehicles coming down 101.  Dave and I watched the progression of emergency vehicles. Startled half asleep neighbors pour out of their condo’s crying about the smoke damage and fearful that the fire would spread. People pulling their possessions out into near by safer areas and loading their cars.  We watched as the man who lived in the Condo was taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation.  The women who lived there was not home when the fire started.  Smoke kept pouring out of the unit.  It traveled through the attics of the attached Condos and was seeping out of garages and attic vents all along the unit.

Unfortunately, the woman who lived there arrived just as flames began to leap out of an upstairs window.  We watched as an officer walked her down the road  and up to her burning condo. She was in shock crying and calling out for her husband and about her son’s room burning.

The Fire Fighters worked hard to quickly open up windows and cut a hole in the roof.  Dave and I took a lot of pictures of the fire and I shared them with the kids at preschool today.  We have been pretending to be fire fighters at school for the last few weeks. Dave and I spent about two and half hours out there watching the whole thing.  I’m glad no one was hurt and think we will get some renter’s insurance.

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