Trial By Fire
April 24th, 2008, 12:20 pm
So in the past week I have had a few bad experiences with fire:
- Toaster Oven Fire (that I got to test out my skills in using a fire extinguisher)
- Oil fire (that very nearly burned down my kitchen and left my apartment stinking of burnt oil)
- I left my BBQ on for 3 hours and it was glowing red hot when I found it
- I went camping and was nearly unable to start the camp fire due to wet wood
Well, today the fire gods decided to test me once again. I woke up unusually early and sat down at my computer. I noticed some shadows going quickly by my window. I opened up my shades and saw smoke and ash billowing past my window. I grabbed some dirty clothes, my cell phone and a fire extinguisher and ran out the door. I went around the corner of my apartment building and an entire tree and corner of the building was on fire. I quickly dialed 911 and considered trying to mellow the fire with the fire extinguisher but then the fireman on the other side of the phone told me not to. I then ran inside and grabbed my laptops, safe and a couple backup hard drives and started piling them by the door. Within 3-4 minutes the fire department showed up and tore open the plastic siding off the corner of the building and put out the fire.
I went back inside and looked at the small pile of belongings that I deemed worthy of saving and laughed. I just thought, “When I move, why do I even bother with the rest of this stuff? What I have here would fit in the front seat of my car.”
…so I don’t know what I am going to do to appease these fire gods, but at least I saved my apartment from burning down. Guess I’ll go sacrifice some animal flesh or something and buy some extra fire extinguishers…
Steven Paquin said,
April 24th, 2008, 3:46 pm
Did the fire department say what caused the fire? Sounds like it might be electrical.
MAF said,
April 24th, 2008, 4:25 pm
They said someone’s cigarette in the mulch and they were trying to pin it on some old Indian guy who wasn’t even around. I forgot to mention that part. It was all pretty odd.
Joey said,
April 25th, 2008, 5:58 pm
This latest fire would likely have happened regardless of whether you had those earlier fires. Although, those earlier incidents might have primed you to be wary of fires, and thus you were probably more alert to fire than some of your neighbors, helping you to respond more quickly than you might normally have.
Nathan said,
April 26th, 2008, 9:28 pm
HAHA crazy! Funny that you had no problem with starting fires accidentally but couldn’t do it on purpose.
James said,
April 27th, 2008, 9:04 pm
Hahaha crazy… hopefully this will be your last fire related incident for quite some time.