Excuse me. It’s taken me a while to tell you this because it’s too big, too real, and too bad. I started a few threads about practical matters a few days afterwards, but I couldn’t tell you how bad it was. A couple of weeks ago, while I was running errands and my fiance was running errands, his apartment building caught fire. I saw the smoke as I was coming home, thought I was being paranoid, and drove to his place only to see flames shooting 15 feet out of the roof. So much for paranoia. :rolleyes: I called him and told him what was happening. Later that day, I gave his information to the Red Cross and the police.
This fire was the worst his town has seen in over 25 years. He lived in a gorgeous old building which used to be a railroad hotel. It had a brick exterior, but it’s interior structure was wooden. It also had a beautiful, wooden, spiral staircase which became a chimney during the fire. Everyone made it out all right, but even though the fire department got there in two minutes and seven fire departments wound up being called, they couldn’t save the building. Everyone made it out all right, including all of the pets except for one hampster, but there wasn’t time to grab much. There’s been a car in his parking lot since the fire because the owner didn’t grab the keys. With the staircase gone, there’s no way to get to the apartments except up the building’s fire escapes.
So, it’s been rough. The owner and the local fire department were great. They salvaged a lot of personal items for people after the fire. My fiance also had renters insurance and they’re being helpful. He’s also better off than most people. Because he was on vacation, he had more than the clothes on his back, and there was no question of where he’d stay. Still, it’s been over two weeks of constant strain. They’re going to tear the building down. As part of the contract, the owner wants the company doing the demolition to salvage as much of the tenants’ property as they can. Still, all the furniture’s gone and my fiance had some personal items in areas which we think were destroyed. Some of his clothes, he was told, were melted. This man who hates shopping is going to have to replace his wardrobe. As he pointed out to me, he hasn’t been able to fit all his worldly possessions into his car since college!
This should have been a happy time. We do, after all, have a wedding to plan and we both love fall. Instead of going out into the country and shooting photos of the fall foliage, he’s trying to salvage slides of photos shot in previous years. (The fire department recovered a lot of boxes of slides, but many of those have smoke and water damage.) Instead of registering for china, we’ll be picking out every day dishes. He’s found a couple of likely looking apartments and the insurance agency will lend him furniture for a month or so, to give him a chance to replace the stuff he lost. Still, we’ve both been plagued with stomach ailments and the strain won’t ease until they actual tear the building down and salvage what they can. My fiance has lost almost everything and there’s very little I or anyone else can do. We’re better off than anyone else in the building, but we’re still very bad indeed.
Oh yes, I forgot the best bit and why this should, perhaps be a Pit thread. This fire didn’t need to happen. On a Saturday afternoon, a fellow fell asleep while smoking in bed and set the mattress on fire. He panicked and grabbed a fire extinguisher, but didn’t know how to work it, so he bent the pin rather than pulling it. He then tried to drag the flaming mattress down the staircase out of the back of the building. He didn’t succeed, but he did set the back of the building on fire. He then opened the front door of the building and the doors and windows in his apartment which set up a very nice draft. Thus the residents of 12 apartments lost their homes and a beautiful, historic building went up in flames.
Materially, we’re doing all right. Emotionally and spiritually, though, well, let’s just say things leave a lot to be desired. Hopefully this will be the hardest thing we have to face, and a year from now it will be a story we tell. Right now, though, it’s grief and anger and ashes. We’ll make it through.
Thank you for reading this and for being there for us.
