apartment building fire

I finally am back in the states, with many blog entries to write. I'm still getting over the time change as I am waking up very early in the morning and going to bed very early in the evening. Well, early is relative I suppose.

So Saturday morning, I am preparing photos to print when I hear a faint little beeping noise, sounds like someone's smoke detector from another apartment in the building. Considering my smoke detector goes off after I take a shower or sometimes after I open the oven door, I figure it's no big deal. Five minutes go by and I still hear the beeping. Ten minutes, and I'm really curious so I open my apartment door to find four fire fighters bolting through the front door of the building with a hose. Yeah, that's my cue to get the hell out.

I grab my jacket, slip on the Birkenstocks, slam my laptop shut and yank all the cables, pick up my laptop with my passport from travel and I am out the door. The entire block is closed off, two fire trucks in the parking lot, two more in the adjacent complex, and two more in the street. Ambulances and EMTs on standby. Smoke is billowing out of the joint where the roof meets the building's front face.

It's about 8:30 am, 20-some degrees outside, and I'm in my sleepwear trying to ascertain information from every source I can: neighbors who I am meeting for the first time, firefighters, and EMTs. The ladder truck is getting some firefighters to the roof, while others are storming through the stairways. The Arlington County Fire Department and Falls Church Fire Departments did a really commendable job on (1) getting on the scene quickly, (2) containing the fire, and (3) keeping all of us residents informed and in good shape. They offered us seats in the medic unit (ambulance) to stay warm, briefed us every half hour, and answered all our questions. The American Red Cross also showed up to support us residents as necessary, more so for those displaced by the fire.


One of the many engines on the scene. (I actually left my camera behind when I bolted, this photo was taken after the all clear was given.)

It turned out an apartment on the top floor had a kitchen fire and it spread into space between the top floor ceiling and the building's roof. I thought the exhaust fan in the kitchen vented outside through some kind of duct, but apparently it just vents into the space between the floors. Keep in mind, kitchen exhaust can be greasy, and after many years of venting greasy air into a closed space, the buildup becomes quite combustible.

The good news was that nobody was hurt and fire damage was relatively contained to two apartments. A few hours later, the residents were allowed back inside. Some water damage was present in the apartments below and the apartments on the same floor sustained some smoke damage. I was really fortunate to escape all the damage altogether. No natural gas service for the rest of the day since it had to be shut off during the fire, but it was a small inconvenience to pay compared to what happened to the top floor apartments. I wandered up with my camera afterwards to check it out -- the photo is below.



It was obvious that the apartment was totally wrecked. The firefighters had to poke holes throughout the walls and ceiling to chase the fire and look for hotspots. A couple of lessons learned...

• Make sure you have your renter's insurance up to date. For how inexpensive it is, you have to be crazy not to have it.
• Keep an ABC-rated fire extinguisher in your kitchen. It's not expensive and it can be stowed pretty easily. I've always kept one in my kitchen no matter where I've lived -- and I've used it before to put out a fire. It's much easier to put out a small fire than it is to wait for the fire department to put out an apartment or house fire. Note: be careful when putting out a grease fire. Stand back and spray over the grease to have the flame suppressant "snow" into the grease. Shooting the extinguisher into the grease will cause the grease to splash out of the pot or pan, splatter, and possibly spread the fire or burn you severely.
• Keep wallet (identification), keys, and cell phone in a consistent location. I'm guilty of putting them in different places all the time, but when the time came for me to bail, I couldn't find them and I had to scramble really hard with only limited success.
• Lastly, they really aren't kidding when they say smoke detectors are a life and death matter. I actually helped my resident manager install the smoke detector outside my apartment in the hall. The one upstairs (photo below) was the only means of me knowing something was happening. If the smoke detector goes off for mundane reasons (shower, oven), it means that you need to find a way to vent the steam or cooking smoke, not disable the smoke detector. Disable smoke detectors at your own peril.

That's all for my fire safety lesson for today.

Being a regular supporter of the American Red Cross definitely showed for itself as well. It was really good to know that the families who were in need this past weekend had a near immediate response to their crisis. The families were being comforted by the volunteers on scene as the fire was burning and the Red Cross helped to make arrangements for the displaced to find temporary housing. (Not to mention, they offered to help me and other residents if we had needed anything.) The Red Cross has received some negative publicity recently for being inefficient and/or unaccountable for some of their management and finances. That may be true, and reform is probably warranted, but there's no question the work they do is valuable, and you'd definitely want them to be there when you are in a bind and there's no one else who can help. (I've mentioned in a previous post that they were the first ones to help my family when they arrived in this country.)