I snapped the small inset pic of the apartment fire while sitting on the expressway exit ramp heading to class Saturday morning. The other image I shot from the window of my classroom and that is the brand new library on campus. That building is not on fire but I am sure it scared quite a few administrators on campus. The fire was a half mile away yet I had to shut the doors to our classroom because even at this distance the smoke was so intense that I got a headache and a student who has allergies, her nose and eyes were clearly red. This is one of my biggest fears living in an apartment. One person can take out a whole building. A couple of years ago I helped prevent a fire in our building when an elderly lady had burning food on her stove and was trapped in her bedroom because the smoke was so bad and she had fallen down. Thank goodness I was freelancing and working from home then (or maybe just unemployed), otherwise we may have lost everything. I called the fire department and had the super come open the door and get her out. Soon after that she had to move into a nursing home.—NY
I, too, think about those things. Our stove knobs move just by brushing up against them, so we're always double checking those before we go. Another thing we forget about is the water heater. If we go away for long periods, there's just no need to have it on. Next time I will move it to "vacation" mode. I would be up a creek if our building went up in flames. I couldn't afford to live anywhere else. We have such a good deal in the best neighborhood in town. Small apartments in the crappiest neighborhood are going for much, much more. The people under us have been living in this building for 35 years. They pay like $600 a month. Can you imagine how bad their outlook would be?
ReplyDeleteI remember you coming to the rescue of that woman. So scary. You were definitely an angel.