Positively True Adventures (and the firemen were cute, too)

[seraphcelene]

You know how if you've never seen a thing work you wonder IF it works? I do ALL the time because how do you know? It could have gone bad and since it's never used, you'd never know it was broke. I think that about my airbags CONSTANTLY. My car is fifteen years old. Things don't work the way they used. I've never been in THAT kind of accident and I don't plan to. So, what to do? I can pay to get it tested, but that's extra cash that's currently unavailable. Anyway.

The fire alarm in my building just went off. I've never heard it, so at first I thought it was a building down the block being burglarized. One of the boutiques around the corner was getting broken into pretty regularly once upon a time. Total, snatch and grab where someone would put a brick through the window and snatch what they could off the mannequins. Totally random, if you ask me, because it was a little over priced women's boutique. And there wasn't much in the window and definitely nothing that one would call designer. I wondered, with no small bit of annoyance, when the police would get here to shut the thing off. That is until I started to smell the smoke. And looked outside. And saw one of my neighbors with coat and purse in hand. So, I opened the window and yelled out:

Me: What is that? Is that a fire alarm?
Neighbor: Yeah. *gesturing towards the building*
Me: What's on fire?
N: One of the apartments!
Me: Oh, OUR Building?

That kinda cleared up the it's-four-in-the-morning-and-I-was-asleep-cobwebs. Annoyance disappeared in favor of let's get organized and let's get outta here. I put on some sweatpants and woke up my brother. Then grabbed my purse, coat, cellphone, and scooped up my cat. Generally, my flip flips are by the door, so I jumped in them and headed out.

Here's where it gets special because as I was on my way out, one of my neighbors was on his way in. He, bless his altruistic soul, was knocking on everyone's door to get them up and out. He thought the fire was in the first apartment downstairs. That made life real Real for a moment and so I scooted a little quicker.

In retrospect standing on the front lawn with my cat wrapped in coat, trying to wiggle out and see what the fuck was going on, I marveled at his actions. Pretty awesome. Turns out my older neighbor lady hadn't heard or something. I felt bad. I'll have to add her to my list of people to Get Out in the Case of an Emergency.

So crazy morning and it's not even five. I'm supposed to go to the gym today. I better get back to bed. 7am will be here in no time at all.

Comments

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

But the building was okay, right?

We've had fire alarm testing all week in the building where I work. Fun fact -- the flashing lights from the alarm cause the automatic sinks to run in the bathroom. It's kind of funny, but mostly annoying.

[mallyns.livejournal.com]

You wanna know what is insane? My building's fire alarm use to go off all the time, at least once a month if not more because it was faulty. Everyone just started to ignore it. One time the upstairs alarm was going off non stop for 3 weeks, because the landlord left the smoke decor on the radiator. So, when it turned on it went off.

Finally, one day it went off and we smelled gas. After the fire people came, we told them about the faulty alarms. The chief order the landlord to fix it asap, or he would have the town fine him some insane amount of money every day. Plus he would have to put everyone up in a nice hotel until it was fixed (including paying the hotel fees).

It got fixed and quick. It doesn't go off that much now. Except when the main power to them dies. Which is every few months, but it gets taken care of by the next day. I have gotten into the habit of waking the landlord up at 4 am when it goes off. Hey, if I'm up he has to be up. :)

I'm glad you are okay though.

Airbags, do need to be replaced every now and then especially after they go off in a crash. However, if they are "dead" a warning light will show up on the dash, sometimes the horn will just keep going off. Like most crap on a car, it will tell you when it needs to be replaced.

[lettered.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're alright.

Dude, I learned to ignore fire alarms early in life. Our dorm went off every other week when I was in England, and it was always in the middle of the night, and it was fucking cold. There was never a fire. It was a really bad lesson to learn. I slept through them all the time. Or tried to.

Good on your neighbor, too.

I hope everyone came out okay.

[a2zmom.livejournal.com]

I hope everybody was fine. I've never had to deal with an actual fire situation and I hope I never do.

[redbrickrose.livejournal.com]

That's so scary! I hope everything's okay.

[seraphcelene]

Ho,ho, ho ....

Yes, the building was fine. Should've mentioned that. It wasn't actually building on fire at all. Trash bin out back was ablaze. I am suspecting that someone tossed a leftover cigarette in there. There's always SOMEONE smoking in the garage. It only *looked* like the fire was coming from the first apartment because the trash bin is right under it.

So, all was alright with the world and the fireman reset the alarm and shooed us back inside.

The flashing lights thing is hilarious, although, I can also see how it could be annoying. :)

[seraphcelene]

You are a better woman then I am. I would have moved. I also probably would have called the landlord every single time it went off, regardless of the time of day, ultimately resulting in me calling the fire department. I dislike when things do not work and are not fixed promptly. I am always the annoying tenant complaining about every damn thing. (Squeaky wheel and all of that.) Of course, on the flip side of that. I will only complain about it if I cannot fix it. That is ridiculous and dangerous that that alarm was not properly cared for. And I think that if you are up because of this atrocious reason, then he damn well should be, too!

Thanks for the heads up on the airbag.I am less worried.

[seraphcelene]

Ha Ha!

We used to have crazy alarms all the damn time, too. When I was a freshman, anyway. They have to be in the dead of night, it's like a rule or something. False alarms are always after 3am. SO ANNOYING! They cleared the entire building, so you couldn't actually ignore it and sleep through it. I remember standing in the rain one time, in my PJ's, cursing the idiots who had pulled the alarm this time.

Luckily, it was just the trash bin out back that was on fire and that was contained very quickly. Thankfully, the smoke detectors were sensitive to pick it up rather quickly and all of the service peoples around here (firemen and policemen) are very responsive. All was well!

[seraphcelene]

As I was standing out on the sidewalk with my purse and my cat, I was thinking about how all my pictures were inside and my laptop. Of everything I own, those are the two things that I would want to save the most. This leads me to thinking that I need to do some massive back-up on an offsite server somewhere and scanning of the family photographs will need to commence posthaste.

[seraphcelene]

Everyone is fine and great. The building isn't scarred either. Thanks!

[lettered.livejournal.com]

Good! Glad everyone was okay.

With our dorm I'm pretty sure it was a malfunctioning system.

[a2zmom.livejournal.com]

Our phptos are uploaded to the net, so at least I don't have that worry. (It helps that the husband owns his own domain space.)