Some damned firebug dragged some trash over to an exterior wooden door that leads to a basement in the apartment complex I live in, then lit it on fire.

The alarm (excruitiatingly painful) went off around 12:45ish. When I say excruitiatingly painful, I mean excruitiating.

And yet my next door neighbor slept through it, I found out, to my extreme embarrassment when we all gathered outside. As we did a quick headcount (I've never met all my neighbors, so didn't even know how many people there were supposed to be milling around outside) someone else suddenly thought to go bang on her door, and yep, she was still sleeping. Should have thought to bang on her door - Stupid me.

I'd been too busy getting my cat in her carrier and getting her outs ide.

Once outside, we milled around, avoiding the large driveway puddles, and the row of over-flowing garbage buckets out waiting for pickup later today. One of the first people outside had her cell phone and was trying to call the landlord's emergency n umber. No one was picking up (nor did anyone, for the 45 minutes she spent trying that number). Someone had of course already called the fire dep't, and they soon arrived.

I put my cat-in-carrier over on the grass, away from the hub-bub, and checked on her every so often, spending the rest of the time with the others talking quietly and watching the firemen put out the fire. Turned out there'd also been another small blaze, just down the block, just before ours was noticed. Wonderful - we have a firebug setting mutliple fires in one night. The drunk who'd wandered by and who meandered off and disappeared soon after the fire truck arrived on the scene incited, in retrospect, the suspicion of a few of us.

But he was gone. Someone who was I assume the fir e dept. version of a detective or insepctor of fire sites gathered some information from us bystanders, pausing good-naturedly to recommend which types of home fire extinguishers were most useful.

Now all we were waiting for was to get that @#$ed alarm s hut off. We needed the box's key. The person acting as Super appeared and offered another number the landlord could be reached at; thank God he wasn't that far away. He finallly arrived with key, and we got relief, blessed relief from the cacophony.

What worked: I didn't panic - got something warm on, wallet and keys in my pocket, got the cat in the carrier, got out.

What needs improvement: Back exit was hard to get at, blocked by clutter (door to back foyer where cat carrier was stored and potential exit), forgot to check on neighbor, assuming no one could sleep through that noise, that the light being on in the foyer meant she had left. Way too many assumptions. Forgot to grab cell phone on the way out. Oh, and I need a fire extinguisher.

There are much easier ways to meet your neighbors..

From: [identity profile] drake57.livejournal.com


I'm glad your safe Bex!
You didn't panic and got yourself and kitty out safely...i hope there won't be a second time but i'm sure you'll remember the neighbor if there is.
Sounds like a scary experience
Hope they catch the firebug and he dosen't set any more fires.

Again glad your safe
.

Profile

kalibex: (Default)
kalibex

Most Popular Tags

Powered by Dreamwidth Studios

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags