Fire on the 7th floor
Okay, so I'm finally posting a real blog post! I have to share with you all the story of the apartment fire that was in our building last week.
The first thing you have to know is that I live on the top floor (the 9th floor) of my building. It is the highest up that I have ever lived. One thing you always think about in an apartment in Moscow, is how will you escape if there is a fire. They really only make these buildings with one way in and out. We do sort of have a balcony and there is actually a little ladder sort of next to my bedroom window that goes down the side of the building, but neither are great options.
The second thing you should know is that my bedroom is next to the outer door of our apartment and the elevator shaft. So I can hear the elevator going up and down all the time in my room.
The third thing you should know about my building is we have two apartment doors. An outer one to the hall and then a private all for just us and one neighbor. Then the inner door to our apartment.
So, it was 3 am on a Monday morning. I awoke to a loud pounding noise: bam...bam...bam. Pause. Bam...bam...bam. Loud shouting. Bam...bam...bam. Sounds of the elevator going up and down. Bam...bam...bam. Wiirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. That finally got my attention. Sounded like a drill or saw. Not an uncommon sound in a city seemly obsessed with remodeling, but rarely at 3:30 am. All these sounds seemed to me to add up to someone trying to break into an apartment (I'd seen this happen once so I knew the procedure) So I finally decided to get up and make sure all this noise didn't mean someone was trying to break into MY apartment.
Got up, looked through the peep hole, so sign of activity. A faint, slightly strange smell. I headed to the bathroom. On the way back, the smell was strong and definitely smoke! FIRE! I checked the peep hole again. This time the outer door was wide open and I could see that the outer door across the hall was open too. Were people evacuating?
So I woke up my roommates and told them there was a fire in the building. Went to my room and got dressed. About the time we were all dressed, my roommate noticed there was a lady standing in the hallway. I went out to ask her what was going on. She said "normalniya" which means everything is normal, everything is okay. The smell of smoke was so strong I knew this was NOT normal!
I went down the stairs a little ways and saw a bunch of my neighbors on the landings below standing around and smoking. As I looked down I could see firemen on the 7th floor attempting to break into an apartment.
Since everyone was standing around watching and no one was evacuating and the firemen were blocking the only exit (except climbing down the side of the building) there didn't seem to be much we could do except go back to bed. I stayed up for a little while monitoring the situation.
The next time I crept down the stairs to check I saw a police man standing at the foot of the steps on the 7th floor blocking the exit and holding a lit cigarette. Just in front of him was a fireman with an oxygen tank strapped on his back. Safety is not too big here! But the good thing about these buildings is they are solid concrete, so unless the fire got into the gas lines, it is very hard for it to spread beyond one apartment.
So finally, I went back to bed, although I confess I didn't sleep. I peered out my window at every sound of an engine starting, wondering if I'd see the firetruck leaving. I never did.
The next morning the elevator wasn't working so we walked down the stairs and past the burned out apartment. The outer door was open and it looked like the inner door was completely gone. We could see the blackened entryway of the apartment.
The next day a huge dumpster was outside and full of the contents of the apartment when I got home.
On Wednesday night I was at Bible study telling my friends about the fire, and an American friend asked, "didn't they evacuate the building? What do they do?" My russian friends replied, "they don't evacuate the building if there is a fire, you just know you are going to die." And they were serious. Crazy place I live in!
The first thing you have to know is that I live on the top floor (the 9th floor) of my building. It is the highest up that I have ever lived. One thing you always think about in an apartment in Moscow, is how will you escape if there is a fire. They really only make these buildings with one way in and out. We do sort of have a balcony and there is actually a little ladder sort of next to my bedroom window that goes down the side of the building, but neither are great options.
The second thing you should know is that my bedroom is next to the outer door of our apartment and the elevator shaft. So I can hear the elevator going up and down all the time in my room.
The third thing you should know about my building is we have two apartment doors. An outer one to the hall and then a private all for just us and one neighbor. Then the inner door to our apartment.
So, it was 3 am on a Monday morning. I awoke to a loud pounding noise: bam...bam...bam. Pause. Bam...bam...bam. Loud shouting. Bam...bam...bam. Sounds of the elevator going up and down. Bam...bam...bam. Wiirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. That finally got my attention. Sounded like a drill or saw. Not an uncommon sound in a city seemly obsessed with remodeling, but rarely at 3:30 am. All these sounds seemed to me to add up to someone trying to break into an apartment (I'd seen this happen once so I knew the procedure) So I finally decided to get up and make sure all this noise didn't mean someone was trying to break into MY apartment.
Got up, looked through the peep hole, so sign of activity. A faint, slightly strange smell. I headed to the bathroom. On the way back, the smell was strong and definitely smoke! FIRE! I checked the peep hole again. This time the outer door was wide open and I could see that the outer door across the hall was open too. Were people evacuating?
So I woke up my roommates and told them there was a fire in the building. Went to my room and got dressed. About the time we were all dressed, my roommate noticed there was a lady standing in the hallway. I went out to ask her what was going on. She said "normalniya" which means everything is normal, everything is okay. The smell of smoke was so strong I knew this was NOT normal!
I went down the stairs a little ways and saw a bunch of my neighbors on the landings below standing around and smoking. As I looked down I could see firemen on the 7th floor attempting to break into an apartment.
Since everyone was standing around watching and no one was evacuating and the firemen were blocking the only exit (except climbing down the side of the building) there didn't seem to be much we could do except go back to bed. I stayed up for a little while monitoring the situation.
The next time I crept down the stairs to check I saw a police man standing at the foot of the steps on the 7th floor blocking the exit and holding a lit cigarette. Just in front of him was a fireman with an oxygen tank strapped on his back. Safety is not too big here! But the good thing about these buildings is they are solid concrete, so unless the fire got into the gas lines, it is very hard for it to spread beyond one apartment.
So finally, I went back to bed, although I confess I didn't sleep. I peered out my window at every sound of an engine starting, wondering if I'd see the firetruck leaving. I never did.
The next morning the elevator wasn't working so we walked down the stairs and past the burned out apartment. The outer door was open and it looked like the inner door was completely gone. We could see the blackened entryway of the apartment.
The next day a huge dumpster was outside and full of the contents of the apartment when I got home.
On Wednesday night I was at Bible study telling my friends about the fire, and an American friend asked, "didn't they evacuate the building? What do they do?" My russian friends replied, "they don't evacuate the building if there is a fire, you just know you are going to die." And they were serious. Crazy place I live in!