Fiiiiiiiiiiii-yuh!

I just had a brush with my worst fear as an apartment renter: a fire in a neighboring apartment. Luckily, it was confined to that one unit and no one was injured.

I was just goofing off online when I smelled acrid smoke. My first thought was that the neighbor behind me was grilling something. But when I stuck my head outside, black smoke was pouring out from under the breezeway. (I live upstairs.) Leaning farther out, I saw it was from the apartment diagonally down from mine, in the middle of the building. A woman driving by was parked in the street trying to call 911. I saw my neighborlady standing near the stairs with her infant child.

No one had yet gotten 911, so I dialed. I was put on hold! It was only a few seconds, but still. But after the call got in, it took only a few minutes for almost half-a-dozen pumpers and ladder trucks to arrive.

By this point, the smoke was really dense and roiling out of the unit. The neighbor said she'd been asleep when her child starting crying loud enough to wake her. That young man saved her life. She grabbed him and headed out. It was only a moment later when I saw them outside. I went to the occupied apartments to bang on the doors to wake them up, if they were home. No one was; it was just the three of us. Another neighbor in back came around to let her son wait in his warm car, away from the scary stuff.

The Fire Dept. cut our power all around (for safety) and went in. It didn't take long to put out, as it was mostly contained to the front living room. Apparently, a bad mixture of electric heat and drapery. When they knocked out the back window, another column of choking smoke poured out. Everything they had is ruined by either smoke or water damage.

Things were squared away in pretty short order. The firemen kept us advised on what was going on. Very professional and courteous responses on their part. All the windows in the apartment were broken out, and the inside is destroyed. It will take major renovations before it's livable. The neighbors got moved to another unit in the building. All of them are safe, thank goodness. The boy saw some smoke leftovers and started to whimper a bit, so I imagine he'll have a tough time sleeping tonight. He's a hero, just too young to comprehend.

The big fear on my and my upstairs neighbor's part is that a wall fire is still lurking inside. We made sure to have the firemen check for that and they say we're fine. Damage was mostly confined to the front wall, not any side/conjoining walls. Still, I doubt I'll be sleeping tonight.

Both the cats, once the smoke got thick, bolted for their hidey holes. Rocky is out now, scoping out the situation; Bennie is still hiding, which is normal for her. She's slow to recover from these kinds of scares. My apartment was undamaged, but is pungent with acrid smoke. Even though it's freezing, I have the windows open and a fan on to mitigate things. My fingers are numb and shaking as I type this.

Only bad thing I learned is that the other upstairs neighbor, a young woman, had left her apartment just minutes before the fire really took off. She had noted the smoke and smell but didn't worry about it! She had gone off with not much second thought. Thanks lady.

Things are beginning to settle down. The folks downstairs are in a new unit, sorting through the wreckage. They know they need to act before it gets dark, because the unit will be looted overnight. The landlord showed up. She parked in the lot next door and surreptitiously came around to see how bad it was. MLGW got out pretty quickly and turned our power back on.

It could have been much, much worse, of course, and I'm grateful it wasn't. No one was seriously injured (or killed!). The fire didn't spread (yet!). It's over now and the block will be sharing and retelling the story for months to come.