Just a little fire

So... Saturday night, I was in my kitchen, finally getting my act together to feed myself and looking forward to having a "real meal", when I lost power in my apartment. The lights suddenly went out. I opened the door and could hear voices so I yelled out and got no response, but did manage to ascertain that it wasn't just my apartment that had lost power- it was the whole building.

Went back to the kitchen to turn off the gas and realized that while I own two flashlights, neither one had batteries- note to self, buy batteries and candles. I grabbed my cellphone and by its not-so-powerful backlighting I unplugged my computer and turned off the fan in the kitchen. Then I went to the balcony to see what was going on. Dave outside in front of the building with a friend, was apparently just returning from dinner when he saw flames coming from the electrical counter box downstairs! At this point, notice the "fire safety" configuration of B6: the fire alarm pull-thingie is just inside the door to the building, the fire extinguishers are also by the door (on the wall with the power box), there are no smoke detectors, no fire escapes planned, no foldable fire ladders or smoke masks in the apartments. Admittedly the building is concrete so it would not burn down, but we all have gas stoves and hot water... The only possible exit strategy is a well-aimed leap out of the window and I live on the 5th floor.

There were only 2 other people in the building, I believe- both on the 6th floor. So, here I am, on the balcony, yelling to find out what's going on when I see smoke coming out of the front door and flash back to the email from my friend Beth who was here at the time (not rendered verbatim, but I think the general feeling is there): "Don't worry, there was a fire in B6 a couple of days ago. The electrical box was in flames and they are working to fix it. No big damages, but smoky smell and sooty walls. One of our colleagues ran downstairs through the smoke and she suffered some smoke inhalation problems, but the rest of us are fine. Power should be back in a couple of days. We're being housed in ACC until we can go home."

At least I knew that running down would be a bad idea! I paced back and forth and onto the balcony a couple of times to see gradually more campus security people arrive and crowd around. At one point one of them ran to another building and got a fire extinguisher and appeared to make use of it. Another guy tore open a smoke-mask package, put on the mask and dashed in, making me realize that those would be handy little gadgets to have inside the building on fire/ filled with smoke. Dave had called one of the office assistants and she in turn had called in the "professionals" (though when I called a little later to try to find out how they were going to help us out of the smoky, possibly-still-on-fire building she seemed remarkably unconcerned by the situation- might be a Chinese thing).

The fire got put out and I got a phone call saying to stay put and put a towel under the door to prevent smoke from getting in, though by then I'd been stupid and opened the front door again to see if it was indeed smoky all the way up or if I could get out- it was smoky- and I already had smoke in my living room. I shifted to the bedroom to get cleaner air and leaned out the window so they'd see I was there. Of course, since I am "foreign teacher", they didn't try to talk to me, merely shining their light up at my face and telling each other that there were 2 foreign teachers in the building (and possibly a family above me). No explanation of how we were getting out... still!

I was about to jump in the shower, get soaked, grab a scarf and run down when I heard voices coming into the building and got another call saying they were coming to get us with flashlights. I grabbed keys, shoes, trusty lighting-up cellphone and waited by the door for the knock and the light. When the security guy came and I started coming down the stairs, I saw that from the 4th floor down, the banister and floor was completely covered in fine grey ash and, while the smoke had mostly cleared, there was a strong smell of burning, which, obviously, was worse the further down you went. When I passed the electrical box, I saw a mess of burnt metal, ash and melted plastic... awesome...

Outside, it took a while to get information. Another office assistant/ friend, Daniel had come over to help interpret and calm us down. The people had no idea if we could stay there for the night, though they seemed to be on the "find alternate accommodation" side of the fence. Since the keypad on the door wouldn't work, they promised to leave someone in front of the building and Daniel was volunteered to stay until midnight to help people get stuff and make sure other B6 inhabitants knew what was going on. I thought they said something about the locking the door overnight, but it seems that the family in 602 refused to come out so they couldn't lock them in. Gradually, we managed to get in touch with our other colleagues who would be homeless for the night and I started trying to figure out whose couches and beds we could all shanghai until the next day. More and more workers/ security people crowded around the charred remains of our power supply looking perplexed and slightly overwhelmed... great start.

The last time this happened, they were put up in the ACC hotel until power was back. This time, our liaisons seemed to think that camping in other people's houses should be our priority. I was mostly interested in getting away from there and with a few things I'd gone back to get (not reasoned out things, since I forgot a towel and a change of clothes, but stuff), finding where I'd be sleeping, because no matter what others preferred, I was not excited about breathing smoke and ash all night, without a fan or AC to ward off the heat. I think I was making it too easy for our confused liaison. Maybe I should have yelled and freaked out and demanded a hotel room at ACC since they own the building that has caught on fire twice in less than 2 calendar years. Maybe I should have kept silent and just gone to pass out on Erin's couch. I really don't know what to do in these situations and I think I talk a lot to ward off the potential panic, because I felt really calm and kind of like things were unreal all evening, through explanations to others about what had happened, through phone calls and text messages to stay on top of things, through our director eventually getting us some hostel rooms at the Network Centre Hostel, through possibly having to share said room, then finding out I wouldn't have to but that they did have smoke masks and fire alarms and two stairwells there so if there was another fire later in the night, I'd be able to get out. I joked my way through those observations and the fact that I was actually cooking for the first time this semester and my food would probably go bad (I shoved the pot of pasta into the fridge and covered the sauce with a cutting board). Basically, I thought I was handling it really well, except for a little lack of coordination.

After staying with people as long as possible, watching a buffered episode of Bones on my laptop and cleaning off the dust, I sat there and didn't want to turn out the light. I suddenly realized that I was scared it would happen again, like some stupid coincidence. When I finally turned out the light and calmed down enough to fall asleep, it wasn't too long before a huge thunderstorm work me up, but I was too drained to go watch it. Before I fell asleep again I thought I heard someone whisper my name through the door and thought maybe it was Jenica coming to sleep in the A/C and away from the panicked meows of Elliot (Boy Cat now has a name)... nope, just my crazy imagination!

When morning came, we were kindly invited up to have 'breakfasty beverages that require electricity' at Jenica's house, after which I checked out, then headed back to see that progress was being made on the disaster that was the B6 lobby- they were spray-painting the metal casing yellow. Why? Maybe because the color would distract us from the fact that there had been a fire, or maybe because it was some sort of flame-retardant paint. I'm still hoping it's the latter. Megan and I decided to leave behind the smoky smell and head downtown to pamper ourselves (pedicures and massages) before dealing with the reality that we had no idea where we'd be sleeping that night and no one had told us anything. I did get a flashlight- pocket-sized and powerful.

At 7pm, there were people installing electricity counters in the shiny-yellow box but no cables and a whole mess of random electrical paraphernalia littered the ground.

At 7:30pm, after showering and getting ready by tiny flashlight, I headed over to EAC for the opening night of the clubs (which I'll blog in less detail tomorrow).

At 10pm or so, they told us the power was back on! Hallelujah!

At 10:05pm, Karen called and told me that it was only back in the stairs, not her apartment. Fuses all on? yes. I ran this info by a couple of people and it was run by others until eventually someone fixed it.

At 10:30pm, I walked to B6 and saw light! In apartments! More than one! Turns out they hadn't flicked the apartment switches and were waiting to know who lived where to do so and check that it worked. When I got in, I saw that I'd left lots of lights on and that a spider had already started making its home between my stove fan and the cutting board above my sauce... evil creature!

By 1am, I was ready to go to bed, but didn't want to turn off the light in case there was another fire and I didn't notice because I wouldn't see the power go out and would be asleep. Reason was nowhere to be found.

After some reassurance and talking to people as long as possible, I finally gave in at around 4:30am and climbed into bed. I did not fall asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Today I noticed there's ash all over my living room and kitchen floor.

Tonight, I'd better sleep like the dead... though not the "burnt-to-death" dead...

Thus is concluded the epic of "the second time B6 caught fire and how nothing changed at all after the first fire". I feel like this is a sign that I should get out of here this year, regardless of how well it goes!