Smoked Stephanie
Well that's nice. I currently smell like a 1950's wooden cape cod house.
A house 4 blocks away caught on fire tonight. Unfortunately, my apartment is north of the house, and my livingroom and rest of the apartment now smell like smoke.
I was meditating about 12:50am, when I heard distantly what I thought were alarms. I tried to shake myself into my body. I half succeeded, and dummy me stood right up after laying down solidly for 20 minutes. Bad mistake. Almost fell back on my bed. Caught myself and focused, and sure enough I heard a ton of sirens. I looked out my bedroom window and could see flashing lights. I rushed to my computer room and flew open the blinds. I could see the white smoke flowing towards my apartment. I knew it wasn't on my block or the block in front of me. Me, being the noisy person I am, got my jacket and keys and got in my car. Didn't take me long to find the house. Kinda hard seeing white smoke pouring out of it. I drove around trying to find a good place to watch, and remembered that Cranberry comes out right in front of the house. Sure enough, they hadn't blocked off Cranberry yet, so I parked a block away. There's a bar, Hunter's (no surprise, we're talking Erie) directly across the street from the place. A bunch of the patrons and I stood in the parking lot watching the smoke. There's a comic book business in front of the house that went up. Kinda looking like this: -_- The comic place is the underscore, and the dash on the left is the house that caught fire. The firemen destroyed the windows of the business trying to get to the front of the house. That business definitely has smoke, water, and some fire damage. The house next door also looked to suffer some damage, as the firemen had to kick open their door in order to get to the people that were trapped inside. Yes, everyone is safely out from both houses.
I was told by a patron of the bar that the firemen already got most of the blaze out. I'm looking at the building. There's still too much smoke. I told the guy, "No way it's out. Too much smoke." The guy pointed at the firemen and said that it looked like they were starting to put away stuff. Sure enough, it did look like they were packing it in. A guy was rolling a hose, and getting the fan out. All the hoses were turned off, the guys were at their trucks with their masks off. Then I heard it....that crackling sound. (Anyone who's ever been camping and gotten a good big fire going knows what I'm hearing.) I'm staring directly at the house and then I saw it. The fire was in the upstairs attic in the roof. The fire engulfed the roof and the front attic window. It shot out of the window and also through the front siding. The frames were hot and moving fast. The firemen scrambled up to the top of the firetrucks and used those to spray water over the business and into the house. I could still hear the crackling. I thought the roof was going to collapse under the weight of the dual brick chimneys. Electric was either shut off, or destroyed by the fire, because it was just hanging off the light pole in front of the house/business. I'm thinking the firehose got it a couple of times. Smoke is pouring out of the house again and blowing all around us. I could also feel the spray from the hoses as we were standing downwind from the blaze.
By 2:05am, all the flames looked to be out. The firemen were ripping off the gutters on the side of the business to let the smoke out and triple checking to make sure there were no more hot spots. I saw a fireman standing in the window with a flashlight at the upstairs attic. I couldn't believe it was strong enough to support the guy. That tells me the fire was only in the walls and the roof. There were two guys up in that room, and they kept focusing their flashing lights below the window and to my left. Which in my mind's eye would be a electrical socket near the floor in that room. Again telling me that it may sound like bad wiring or something to do with that socket. Only my opinion of course, since I don't know what really happened.
It was sad seeing that house go up in flames. I'm not sure, because my memory isn't working quite that well...but my friend Kate either lived in that house at one time, or the one next to it. Her mother had an apartment at the back of it. Hmm, I wonder if her mother still lived there? Just last year in October, not a block away on the same side of the street, a house burnt to the ground. It also had a business in the front of it...a pizza place on one side, and the other a tattoo parlor.
So I came back home after the ambulances left, and all the firemen were out of the buildings. I walked into my apartment and I could smell the smoke heavily on me. Ayla jumped on the couch, and started to lick me like I needed a bath. Well, now I'm sure that I do. My hair definitely smells. So that was my excitement for today.
A house 4 blocks away caught on fire tonight. Unfortunately, my apartment is north of the house, and my livingroom and rest of the apartment now smell like smoke.
I was meditating about 12:50am, when I heard distantly what I thought were alarms. I tried to shake myself into my body. I half succeeded, and dummy me stood right up after laying down solidly for 20 minutes. Bad mistake. Almost fell back on my bed. Caught myself and focused, and sure enough I heard a ton of sirens. I looked out my bedroom window and could see flashing lights. I rushed to my computer room and flew open the blinds. I could see the white smoke flowing towards my apartment. I knew it wasn't on my block or the block in front of me. Me, being the noisy person I am, got my jacket and keys and got in my car. Didn't take me long to find the house. Kinda hard seeing white smoke pouring out of it. I drove around trying to find a good place to watch, and remembered that Cranberry comes out right in front of the house. Sure enough, they hadn't blocked off Cranberry yet, so I parked a block away. There's a bar, Hunter's (no surprise, we're talking Erie) directly across the street from the place. A bunch of the patrons and I stood in the parking lot watching the smoke. There's a comic book business in front of the house that went up. Kinda looking like this: -_- The comic place is the underscore, and the dash on the left is the house that caught fire. The firemen destroyed the windows of the business trying to get to the front of the house. That business definitely has smoke, water, and some fire damage. The house next door also looked to suffer some damage, as the firemen had to kick open their door in order to get to the people that were trapped inside. Yes, everyone is safely out from both houses.
I was told by a patron of the bar that the firemen already got most of the blaze out. I'm looking at the building. There's still too much smoke. I told the guy, "No way it's out. Too much smoke." The guy pointed at the firemen and said that it looked like they were starting to put away stuff. Sure enough, it did look like they were packing it in. A guy was rolling a hose, and getting the fan out. All the hoses were turned off, the guys were at their trucks with their masks off. Then I heard it....that crackling sound. (Anyone who's ever been camping and gotten a good big fire going knows what I'm hearing.) I'm staring directly at the house and then I saw it. The fire was in the upstairs attic in the roof. The fire engulfed the roof and the front attic window. It shot out of the window and also through the front siding. The frames were hot and moving fast. The firemen scrambled up to the top of the firetrucks and used those to spray water over the business and into the house. I could still hear the crackling. I thought the roof was going to collapse under the weight of the dual brick chimneys. Electric was either shut off, or destroyed by the fire, because it was just hanging off the light pole in front of the house/business. I'm thinking the firehose got it a couple of times. Smoke is pouring out of the house again and blowing all around us. I could also feel the spray from the hoses as we were standing downwind from the blaze.
By 2:05am, all the flames looked to be out. The firemen were ripping off the gutters on the side of the business to let the smoke out and triple checking to make sure there were no more hot spots. I saw a fireman standing in the window with a flashlight at the upstairs attic. I couldn't believe it was strong enough to support the guy. That tells me the fire was only in the walls and the roof. There were two guys up in that room, and they kept focusing their flashing lights below the window and to my left. Which in my mind's eye would be a electrical socket near the floor in that room. Again telling me that it may sound like bad wiring or something to do with that socket. Only my opinion of course, since I don't know what really happened.
It was sad seeing that house go up in flames. I'm not sure, because my memory isn't working quite that well...but my friend Kate either lived in that house at one time, or the one next to it. Her mother had an apartment at the back of it. Hmm, I wonder if her mother still lived there? Just last year in October, not a block away on the same side of the street, a house burnt to the ground. It also had a business in the front of it...a pizza place on one side, and the other a tattoo parlor.
So I came back home after the ambulances left, and all the firemen were out of the buildings. I walked into my apartment and I could smell the smoke heavily on me. Ayla jumped on the couch, and started to lick me like I needed a bath. Well, now I'm sure that I do. My hair definitely smells. So that was my excitement for today.