Where There's Smoke There's Fire

Monday afternoon a fire broke out in the building where I live. Just as the alarms went off I smelt smoke so I knew this wasn't another test of the new alarm system. I went to check out where the smoke came from, when I saw this soot covered young man run into the hall and break the glass on a fire exstinguisher case. I grabbed one too and ran outside where a small van was engulfed in flames.

The van was in a carport under apartment. There was no putting out the fire with our few hand held extinguishers and the fire department was on its way. I went back to my place and grabbed the dog and my brother, hanging onto the cat, made it out too. Even though we live on the other side of the complex, we were evacuated. It was interesting to see what people chose to rescue from their homes. All the pet owners went after their pets. The musicians brought out their guitars or mixing boards. Only a few people decided to save their laptops.

Well, the power and gas were off for hours. So the other tenants and I naturally had a bar-b-que - a controlled burn. All in all, it was quite a bonding experience and all were grateful that no one got hurt.