At 4:20 AM this morning, I spent 5 minutes in my bed trying to figure out whether the annoying sound was my alarm clock or my cell phone. Eventually, I realized that it was the fire alarm! So what, the fire alarm goes off regularly in my building, however, the last time we had a fire was December 2006. So this time it is probably be a false alarm, right?
I took a quick peak outside my bedroom window. Well, well, well! There was a big scene down in front of my building. There were at least 6 fire trucks with their flashy red lights. Many people were already down with more coming out every few seconds. My building has about 400 apartments with an average of 2-3 people per apartment. I am guessing there are at least 1000 residents in my building.
I believe in the wisdom of the crowd, so I decided to head down immediately. I washed my face, put on my jeans and jacket and headed out. My building has 3 exits on each floor, one in the middle and one on each side. I tried the middle one, and it was full of smoke, it did not help that I took a deep breath as I opened the door to the stair way. Well, that sucks, this is the real deal!
I ran to one of the other exits, and it was clear. I got down fast. I survived!
The fire was on the fourth floor. I did not see an ambulance so I am hoping nobody got hurt.
The whole thing was over by 5:45 AM.
It is now 6:20 AM, so back to bed.
3 responses so far ↓
Scott // September 10, 2007 at 7:59 am
It was my mom’s apartment- electrical fire by the looks of it. No one hurt.
Rami Nasser // September 10, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Thanks for the comment Scott and I am glad no one got hurt.
Ian // October 30, 2007 at 12:29 pm
Funny i found your blog…i live there too, alarm almost didn’t wake me up. I always think they are fake but smoke was coming through my hall on the 18th floor.
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