It's 2am and the fire alarm started ringing at about 1:25 am. I'm not able to get down 8 flights of stairs because of my asthma, so I usually stay in my apartment. If the alarm doesn't shut off in about 10 or 15 minutes, I notify the fire department that I'm still in the building. If they need to evacuate, they come and help me down. In the meantime until the alarm is turned off or they come and get me, I monitor smoke odour and my door for heat.
When the alarm didn't turn off in 10 or 15 minutes I decided to look out the window (I face the back of the building). I noticed that there was a very faint smoke smell, but didn't see anything. And I still didn't smell anything by my apartment door.
In the meantime I'm trying to catch 3 terrified cats.
At the 20 minute point I called the fire department and told them that I'm still in the apartment, that I don't smell smoke at my door and that my door is not warm, but I am smelling a faint smoke smell outside. She told me that there "is something" and that she will notify the fire fighters who will come and assist me.
I threw on my clothing and stepped up my efforts to get my cats. I got Abby first, but she wiggled away when I tried to get her into the carrier. I managed to grab Katie and put her into the new carrier. Spencer was having no part of it. He wouldn't even come to me when I showed him a brush and his favourite toy.
Abby went and hid behind the vertical blinds, and I managed to catch her and shove her into the large cat carrier. However, I still wasn't able to get Spencer close enough to me to catch. I feared I would have to leave him behind
Just as I put Abby into the carrier and closed the carrier door, the fire alarm turned off.
@2:03 am as I was gathering up some documents that I might need, I heard the fire fighters coming down the hallway. I opened the door and there were 2 very winded fire fighters.
By now there was some burned smell in the hallway, but no smoke. They checked my apartment for smoke smell, and found none. They told me that there was a fire on the 4th floor on the east side (I'm on the 7th floor on the west side), facing the river (as do I), but they had already knocked out the fire and it was safe for me to remain in my apartment. They radioed in.
I opened the carriers and let the cats out. Poor kitties! They don't understand why they are being snatched and literally thrown into carriers.
This is the 3rd fire in this building in about 5 years.
The first was on the 3rd floor in an apartment facing the front on the west side (mine). The guy fell asleep with a lit cigarette and when he woke up he saw his couch on fire so he tried to throw it out of the window!
I did smell smoke in the hallway and tried to make my way down the stairs with 1 carrier (I couldn't catch Abby
and had to leave her). I got as far as the 4th floor and I thought I was going to have a heart attack! I have asthma and the smoke smell totally did me in. By the time I got down to the 4th floor I could hardly breathe. I heard voices in the hallway, and I opened the door. There were 3 fire fighters. I gasped that I couldn't go any further. One gave me his Oxygen mask (with ice cold oxygen, so cold that my face was freezing! LOL), and one carried the carrier and one helped me down the stairs. I spent 3 hours in an ambulance resisting going to the hospital because I had just been released from there a few months earlier. So they treated me for smoke inhalation and allowed me to have Chynna in the ambulance with me because it was winter and frigid cold outside. Fire fighters were going up to check on Abby every so often to make sure that things were ok in my apartment.
The 2nd one was the next year or 2 years later. This one on the main floor, middle of the building, facing the river (like I do). It was a grease fire.
Now this one. Ironically I think this one was arson because about 5 or 10 minutes before the alarm went off I heard a bunch of yelling and laughing outside in the parking lot. I didn't think anything about it. Then the fire alarm went off and when I heard it was a real fire, I started to suspect it was deliberate.
Anyway, we're all safe and everything is back to how it should be. I'm starting to smell a faint residual burned smell in my apartment. Like burned plastic. But it's not bad. Just mildly stinky.
@2:23 am, the fire fighters are still in the hallway, "doing something", not sure what. I thought they were checking apartments to give the all clear for people to return.
So it looks like things are still going on. I was going to go to bed, but I guess I'll stay up just in case.
When the alarm didn't turn off in 10 or 15 minutes I decided to look out the window (I face the back of the building). I noticed that there was a very faint smoke smell, but didn't see anything. And I still didn't smell anything by my apartment door.
In the meantime I'm trying to catch 3 terrified cats.
At the 20 minute point I called the fire department and told them that I'm still in the apartment, that I don't smell smoke at my door and that my door is not warm, but I am smelling a faint smoke smell outside. She told me that there "is something" and that she will notify the fire fighters who will come and assist me.
I threw on my clothing and stepped up my efforts to get my cats. I got Abby first, but she wiggled away when I tried to get her into the carrier. I managed to grab Katie and put her into the new carrier. Spencer was having no part of it. He wouldn't even come to me when I showed him a brush and his favourite toy.
Abby went and hid behind the vertical blinds, and I managed to catch her and shove her into the large cat carrier. However, I still wasn't able to get Spencer close enough to me to catch. I feared I would have to leave him behind
Just as I put Abby into the carrier and closed the carrier door, the fire alarm turned off.
@2:03 am as I was gathering up some documents that I might need, I heard the fire fighters coming down the hallway. I opened the door and there were 2 very winded fire fighters.
By now there was some burned smell in the hallway, but no smoke. They checked my apartment for smoke smell, and found none. They told me that there was a fire on the 4th floor on the east side (I'm on the 7th floor on the west side), facing the river (as do I), but they had already knocked out the fire and it was safe for me to remain in my apartment. They radioed in.
I opened the carriers and let the cats out. Poor kitties! They don't understand why they are being snatched and literally thrown into carriers.
This is the 3rd fire in this building in about 5 years.
The first was on the 3rd floor in an apartment facing the front on the west side (mine). The guy fell asleep with a lit cigarette and when he woke up he saw his couch on fire so he tried to throw it out of the window!
The 2nd one was the next year or 2 years later. This one on the main floor, middle of the building, facing the river (like I do). It was a grease fire.
Now this one. Ironically I think this one was arson because about 5 or 10 minutes before the alarm went off I heard a bunch of yelling and laughing outside in the parking lot. I didn't think anything about it. Then the fire alarm went off and when I heard it was a real fire, I started to suspect it was deliberate.
Anyway, we're all safe and everything is back to how it should be. I'm starting to smell a faint residual burned smell in my apartment. Like burned plastic. But it's not bad. Just mildly stinky.
@2:23 am, the fire fighters are still in the hallway, "doing something", not sure what. I thought they were checking apartments to give the all clear for people to return.
So it looks like things are still going on. I was going to go to bed, but I guess I'll stay up just in case.