So as im heading to the bathroom to take a whiz, i smell a little bit of smokeyness. look around, as i assume its something electrical in my apartment shorting out. As i am investigating behind the tv, i hear someone in the hallway yelling- "Fire! Fire in the building!" I poke my head out into the hallway, and immediately see where the smoke smell is from, the hallway is FILLED with smoke. So i immediately run back inside, wake my girlfriend and yell " Get up! the building is burning!! hurry!" threw on pants and a hoodie, and we ran down stairs. Our apt is on the 4th floor, as we go down we see the source of the fire, an apt on the 2nd floor. the door is shut, but there is smoke pouring out from the cracks around it. I make sure that my gf was outside, made sure someone was n the phone with 911 and then ran back upstairs. (not to try and do anything with the fire, but to make sure the upper floors were woken up and notified of the evacuation). It seemed like only 2 minutes or so and then the cops and firemen were there, made us all get out, but not after confirming to mewhat I already knew from passing the apt that was burning, It was a HOT fire. you could feel the heat pouring off the door from 2-3 feet away. So we all went outside and waited, 8 trucks showed up, the hosed it down and put it out, and let us back in after an hour waitingin the street. Saw a few reporters and news choppers, but they were just taking pictures. On the way back in I was astounded not by what they did to the burning apartment, but the apartment one floor down from that one, you could HEAR the water pouring through the ceiling from the hosing that happened upstairs. I never felt happier about living higher in the building then then. the burned apartment itself was torched beyond recognition, but the fire was totally contained to just that one unit.
Props to the NYFD, all 8 trucks were there onsitewithin 5 minutes of me poking my head out my front door. If they hadn't been that quick i feel that that fire could easily have spread further in short order.

So now here i sit. im all amped up, so im just gonna kill time till I have to get ready for work. They didnt tell us what caused the fire, but I'll post more when i get more info.

 

Holy crap, lucky you. The closest I've ever been to something like that was when my neighbor got drunk and lit his garage off and we were forced out of our house because of it. Aside from some paint peeling, it was cool. But damn, that's nuts. Glad to hear you got out ok, and that your apartment didn't get trashed.

You're not going to take a day off because of this? I'd totally be like "I'm traumatized!"

 

Yeah, thank your creator (or, not, if you don't roll that way), and take a "snow-day" so to speak... Fire day? Sounds funny. OK, Trauna Day! Yeah! That works. Take a TraumDay. Do something with your GF you wudn't normally do, just to releaase the tension. Been to the Statue of Lib? How about Ellis Is.? Go!!! Do!!! Enjoy!!! relaxxxxxxxxxxx......

 

Wow crazy, glad your alright man

 

wow - glad u guys got out OK..
quick thinking of letting the other floors become aware of the fire...

 

Wow!!! Glad evrything is OK!!!

 

Yeah the cloeset thing to that for me was our office building (7 story building) had to be evacuated. I was like "YEAH THE BUILDING IS BURNING!!! NO WORK FOR A WHILE!!!!" But there was no fire so i was sad.[>:]

Josh

 

The week i moved into my new place, this happened across from me!

Right before i had to leave for the colts bengals preseason game. Glad i moved the audi.

sorry camera phone pic. not good quality.

Note that i think it looks like Jesus' face.

 

holy shiiiitt!
glad you made it out okay.
That would be a rush.
is there smoke damage to your stuff?

 

No real damage to our stuff, we are at the other end of the building, (its a small building) and since we kept all our doors shut all we have is a smokey smell, like a campfire. It will probably clear in the next few days.

I took a peek inside the burned place when i was coming back in from work and that place is TORCHED. you can see where the fire started, it looked like a candle or something else on a table caught and the fire climbed the wall and spread. (damned flammable old buildings) one of the firemen told me that it stayed contained completely within the one unit, which is good for all the rest of us.Everything else was pretty much cleaned up by the time I got home, I guess the Columbia University Building maintenance team is pretty efficient.


Edit: This is my 100th post!!! WOOHOO!!! Yay Me!!!