Each Step is One in The Right Direction

Fire in the House

Literally.

Midnight this morning, my whole family was sleeping--cause we are party animals, you know. Unbeknownst to us, someone dropped a burning cigarette from one of the balconies above us. It landed in a box that was on our balcony. That box proceeded to catch fire.

The door from our balcony was open just a smidge, but it was enough to let smoke in to set off our home fire alarms. We didn't even realize what it was. My brother was upstairs in his room, trying to sleep when he smelled smoke. He ran downstairs, and saw the flames on the balcony, and proceeded to wake my mom (who was home on a weekend pass from the hospital and heavily medicated) and step-dad up. He ran into my room, lifted my sister out of bed and smacked the crap out of me.

What happens next is a blur. My step-dad goes to get the fire extinguisher, and I call 9-1-1. I get a 9-1-1 "all our operators are currently busy" and hang up soon after because my dad said the fire was out. Apparently, you're not allowed to do that because they called right back, and I spoke to someone from the fire department. Good thing too, because no sooner did I say it was out, did the fire relight itself.

So, my dad gets the other fire extinguisher, and my youngest sister and I start taking the stairs down to the main floor. Never have I ever seen a 7 year old move that fast--we took 12 flights in 60 seconds flat. The firefighters came, and we informed them it was in our unit, and that my dad and mom were still up there (he's really stubborn!), and soon after my brother came down with the dog, having an anxiety attack. He went to the ambulance, and I stayed with my sister who was shaking like a leaf, while a mean police officer took our statements.

Eventually the firefighters kicked my dad and mom out, and contained the fire and started to clear it out of smoke. My sister went to sit in the ambulance to keep warm, and my brother calmed down. When we were allowed to go back up it reaked of smoke and had dust everywhere. Being asthmatic, it wasn't a good place for me, and the friend I had been messaging told me to come to her house. I got my work clothes, and somehow made it to her house at 1:45am, although I don't know how, and we sat up and chatted for a while. I had to leave at 545, and didn't sleep at all,to get to work ontime. It was CRAZY!

Needless to say, I didn't get the run I was hoping for in this morning, but I think I had a pretty good excuse.

Everyone's really shaken up--you could feel the heat of the fire through the glass and to the other end of the living room--but we are so lucky. If we would've slept for like 2 more minutes, things could have got much, much worse. My little brother is practically a hero, getting everyone up and out of the house.

All my dad could say when we met him at the ambulance was "well atlease we didn't get charge for a false alarm".

On the plus side--there were a lot of attractive men there this morning.

One thing I did learn, was that I don't think I'm cut out for this firefighting thing. All I could do was just run the opposite direction, and I don't know if I'd be able to run into a burning building when everyone else is running out.

I'm going to a course in january at Humber College for 9-1-1 telecommunications, and eventually want to work myself into a job in fire prevention for community schools.

So, now I'm hoping the adrenaline will wear off so I can sleep. I'm exhausted.

Thanks for reading, friends.

posted by AddictedToEndorphins @ 4:22 PM