As promised, Fire! (look closely, and you'll notice that there's a firefighter in the dumpster)


So on Friday, Sarah I were hanging out in the apartment and watching TV; I was doing something in the kitchen when I caught a wiff of burning plastic. It was odd, but Sarah wasn't cooking, and I wasn' t intentionally burning anything, so I didn't think all that much of it. I returned to the couch, and, a few minutes later, the smell intensified. More curious than alarmed, I looked out the nonchalantly. The smell was definitely more concentrated in the hallway, but I still didn't see any signs of an actual conflagration and went back inside. Later, smoke alarms started going off, so I headed back to the hallway; there, I found people running around shouting things like, "Fire!" and "Call 911!"

Interesting. Someone was already on the phone with 911, and many other people were taking care of the requisite panicked yelling and running, so I continued my nonchalant investigation. What I found was a large dumpster fire in the room where everyone dumps their trash. Apparently, someone didn't put out his (or her) cigarette before throwing it away. Oops. In any case, while someone exhausted a fire extinguisher in the vicinity of the blaze, the complex's security guard sprayed the wrong side of the wall of the trash room with a fire hose. By the time the firefighters arrived, the blaze, despite the best efforts of my inept, but well meaning, neighbors, had burned itself out.

What did I learn from all this? 1) If there is ever a real fire, my neighbors will panic and not be able to put it out, 2) Firefighters will arrive after considerable damage has been done. Comforting.