Re: Bad News
Hiya,
Yep its me. Its been 13 days since what I will eternally refer to as "the incident".
We're still without a permanent resident and staying with friends. I'm currently staying on the TOWSON university campus. My friend is an ROC on the campus, so she has a private apt.
I'm still in denial about this, and its only when I try to locate something that I realize that everything is gone.
They still don't know what caused the fire that destroyed 2 buildings. My building, #6 was completely destroyed and building #8 which was the connecting building was partially destroyed.
Someone posted the video on YouTube:
This "incident" was just the proverbial stake in the heart for us, because 3 hours before I smelt the smoke I'd gotten a phone call saying that a friend had died unexpectedly. He went into the hospital the morning of Feb 4th with intense stomach pains, only for his condition to deteriorate and being put on life support. He died that same night and we still don't know why. He was 26 years old.
Also that night I was supposed to be at work, but the Op's Manager phoned and put me on call because the unit had many empty beds. Hence I was home, when the call came in from N.Y. about my friend.
The roommate was asleep, but I was awake as per usual because I'm a night owl and was sitting at my computer desk. It was between 1-1:30 a.m. when I smelt the smoke. I went into the kitchen to make sure I didn't leave the oven on, but I didn't. Plus my fire alarm would have alerted me if I had. The smoke smell was stronger, so I looked through my peep hole and saw that the hallway was dark. I opened the door and the smell of the smoke really hit me. But I still didn't understand the danger. I went back to my bedroom and looked out the window and saw flames shooting out the window of the third floor apt window above us. That's when I saw the residents of that apt running out in their night clothes yelling. I didn't even hesitate, I ran out of my room and burst into my roommates. By now smoke was filtering into our apt which was on the first floor.
I tried to wake her up, but she told me to leave her alone as she was dog tired and had to get up for work at 6:15 a.m. I then dragged her naked behind out of bed and told her that the building was on fire and we had to get the F out. That woke her up. She barely had enough time to grab a nightgown, light jacket and shoes. By this time the fire alarm was going crazy and the lights went out. We could barely see anything. We tried to exit the building from the front but it was engulfed in flames. We then tried to exit through the back door but it too was engulfed. We started to panic, when I told K to lets go back into our apt and jump through the window. That's how we got out of the building. But many folks were still inside. This other resident and I took our shoes off and were throwing them at the windows, screaming to folks to get out. But we couldn't wait to see if they heard us because due to the wind the fire was rapidly spreading and shooting sparks all over the place. The trees and shrubs caught fire and we had to retreat down to the the end of the complex.
By then the other residents in the other buildings heard the commotion and came outside. The first of 4 fire companies from the surrounding towns arrived. The fire aided by the wind rapidly spread to building #8 and kept going. Buildings #10, 12 and 14 had to be evacuated, due to the potential danger.
I stood outside for 2 hours watching as our home burnt down. The conditions were intense and the fire companies had trouble putting out the blaze due to the windy conditions. It took them 4 1/2 hours to douse the fire to a manageable level and even when we went back to the complex later that morning around 11:30 am, they were still pumping water over the burnt out structure.
62 people were left homeless. Many of them with young children. 2 people were badly burnt, but most of us just suffered from smoke inhalation.
If it wasn't for the American Red Cross, I don't know what we would have done. They put us up for 2 , gave us funds for food and clothes and even now they are trying to help us get back on our feet.
The first order of business for me was to replace all my ID's/ATM card/Checkbooks that were destroyed. The leasing office(which was in building 8) was destroyed. They had all my ID's photocopied for their records. My job has photocopies of them as well, so those will suffice until the new ones come in. Social Security cards, Passports, state ID's and driver's licenses all have to be replaced. Those we got at a not so steep rate because of the intervention of the Red Cross. Even CVS helped with replacing all my asthma meds, due to the circumstances. The only folks giving us flack is COMCAST. They want us to pay for the destroyed equipment, if we can't provide proof of the fire. The Management Company(for the building) had to step in and deal with that. But I sent COMCAST the fire department reports, Red Cross reports and the news paper article with a very nice F U letter to them. If I didn't hate them before, I do now. Because I will be damned if they put that crap on my credit report for non-payment.
We're still looking for somewhere to live. The management company is trying to place everyone in other complexes that they own. They have some apartments coming available but not till the end of the month. So hopefully we'll have something by then.
I need to get off the university campus, because right now the situation isn't ideal. The friend I'm staying with, its her brother that died. So she's grieving, we're grieving and I want her to have her space. The death of my friend put things in stark perspective for me. Yes I'm sad, but I'm just happy to be alive.
So keep those fingers crossed for us that we get something soon.
*****
Also I'm going through my emails/PM's responding to messages. Its slow going so please be patient with me. ldymusyc, I'll call you this weekend. Is there a specific time/day I should call?
Yep its me. Its been 13 days since what I will eternally refer to as "the incident".
We're still without a permanent resident and staying with friends. I'm currently staying on the TOWSON university campus. My friend is an ROC on the campus, so she has a private apt.
I'm still in denial about this, and its only when I try to locate something that I realize that everything is gone.
They still don't know what caused the fire that destroyed 2 buildings. My building, #6 was completely destroyed and building #8 which was the connecting building was partially destroyed.
Someone posted the video on YouTube:
Click to viewThis "incident" was just the proverbial stake in the heart for us, because 3 hours before I smelt the smoke I'd gotten a phone call saying that a friend had died unexpectedly. He went into the hospital the morning of Feb 4th with intense stomach pains, only for his condition to deteriorate and being put on life support. He died that same night and we still don't know why. He was 26 years old.
Also that night I was supposed to be at work, but the Op's Manager phoned and put me on call because the unit had many empty beds. Hence I was home, when the call came in from N.Y. about my friend.
The roommate was asleep, but I was awake as per usual because I'm a night owl and was sitting at my computer desk. It was between 1-1:30 a.m. when I smelt the smoke. I went into the kitchen to make sure I didn't leave the oven on, but I didn't. Plus my fire alarm would have alerted me if I had. The smoke smell was stronger, so I looked through my peep hole and saw that the hallway was dark. I opened the door and the smell of the smoke really hit me. But I still didn't understand the danger. I went back to my bedroom and looked out the window and saw flames shooting out the window of the third floor apt window above us. That's when I saw the residents of that apt running out in their night clothes yelling. I didn't even hesitate, I ran out of my room and burst into my roommates. By now smoke was filtering into our apt which was on the first floor.
I tried to wake her up, but she told me to leave her alone as she was dog tired and had to get up for work at 6:15 a.m. I then dragged her naked behind out of bed and told her that the building was on fire and we had to get the F out. That woke her up. She barely had enough time to grab a nightgown, light jacket and shoes. By this time the fire alarm was going crazy and the lights went out. We could barely see anything. We tried to exit the building from the front but it was engulfed in flames. We then tried to exit through the back door but it too was engulfed. We started to panic, when I told K to lets go back into our apt and jump through the window. That's how we got out of the building. But many folks were still inside. This other resident and I took our shoes off and were throwing them at the windows, screaming to folks to get out. But we couldn't wait to see if they heard us because due to the wind the fire was rapidly spreading and shooting sparks all over the place. The trees and shrubs caught fire and we had to retreat down to the the end of the complex.
By then the other residents in the other buildings heard the commotion and came outside. The first of 4 fire companies from the surrounding towns arrived. The fire aided by the wind rapidly spread to building #8 and kept going. Buildings #10, 12 and 14 had to be evacuated, due to the potential danger.
I stood outside for 2 hours watching as our home burnt down. The conditions were intense and the fire companies had trouble putting out the blaze due to the windy conditions. It took them 4 1/2 hours to douse the fire to a manageable level and even when we went back to the complex later that morning around 11:30 am, they were still pumping water over the burnt out structure.
62 people were left homeless. Many of them with young children. 2 people were badly burnt, but most of us just suffered from smoke inhalation.
If it wasn't for the American Red Cross, I don't know what we would have done. They put us up for 2 , gave us funds for food and clothes and even now they are trying to help us get back on our feet.
The first order of business for me was to replace all my ID's/ATM card/Checkbooks that were destroyed. The leasing office(which was in building 8) was destroyed. They had all my ID's photocopied for their records. My job has photocopies of them as well, so those will suffice until the new ones come in. Social Security cards, Passports, state ID's and driver's licenses all have to be replaced. Those we got at a not so steep rate because of the intervention of the Red Cross. Even CVS helped with replacing all my asthma meds, due to the circumstances. The only folks giving us flack is COMCAST. They want us to pay for the destroyed equipment, if we can't provide proof of the fire. The Management Company(for the building) had to step in and deal with that. But I sent COMCAST the fire department reports, Red Cross reports and the news paper article with a very nice F U letter to them. If I didn't hate them before, I do now. Because I will be damned if they put that crap on my credit report for non-payment.
We're still looking for somewhere to live. The management company is trying to place everyone in other complexes that they own. They have some apartments coming available but not till the end of the month. So hopefully we'll have something by then.
I need to get off the university campus, because right now the situation isn't ideal. The friend I'm staying with, its her brother that died. So she's grieving, we're grieving and I want her to have her space. The death of my friend put things in stark perspective for me. Yes I'm sad, but I'm just happy to be alive.
So keep those fingers crossed for us that we get something soon.
*****
Also I'm going through my emails/PM's responding to messages. Its slow going so please be patient with me. ldymusyc, I'll call you this weekend. Is there a specific time/day I should call?