Woken

I haven't slept very well the last few nights and so the other night night I was pretty desperate to have a decent sleep which is why I tried to sleep through the noise I started to hear around 2am.

I think I've mentioned that there is some construction stuff going on next door, and they have one of those large "garbage" bin things out front.  And what pulled me from my sleep was what sounded like someone, honest to god, dumping gravel into that bin.  Ugh.

It happened a couple of times and I tried to ignore it to stay asleep cuz, hey, not my problem if someone's doing illegal gravel dumping, but after the third or fourth time I started to wonder if it was like road work or something and so I hauled myself out of bed to the window to see if I could see whatever was doing this gravel dumping and, well, that's when I saw the flashing lights and the plume of smoke!  Uh... not gravel, but a FIRE!

I went and got my glasses to see better (and threw on a housecoat) and there was a lot of smoke but whatever flame was happening was out of sight for me.  I heard a building alarm going off and I started to wonder if I should be prepared to evacuate, but I didn't see sparks flying my way in the dark and there were no firetrucks technically on my side street and so I figured I'd probably be ok?  But man that noise, crazy.  I had no idea water made that kind of a sound.  

I sat and watched for a while and listened to the firefighters communicating (and yes, good idea to turn that gas line off, for sure!) and around 3:30am or so I figured things weren't getting any worse and that I should really try to sleep since I have to work in the morning so I plugged in and turned on my air purifier to help with any smoke that drifted this way (I could probably smell a little? but it wasn't very windy thankfully) and then I closed my windows up almost all the way (leaving them slightly open in case of... you know, evacuation warnings) and I put in earplugs but let's be real, it's kind of hard to fall back asleep when you know there is something that could get worse and impact your building not that far away from your place.  So, I don't think I got much more than some half naps the rest of the night.

When I went to work the next morning I did drive around the block to see what I could see (I'd been looking at street view on Google to try to see what structure it might have been) and while most of whatever had burnt was blocked by thankfully unburnt buildings, I did see charred structural beams and yellow caution tape and someone (I assume from the fire department) walking around the damage.

When I got home, I walked the handful of steps to see what could be seen and it looks like an outbuilding attached to an apartment building (the one I heard them yelling about evacuating) is what caught on fire.  And it turns out that part of the upper walls on this porch type structure (that I wonder if it was a smoking area?) was made from sheets of corrugated plastic and my brain went oooooh ok THAT is what made that "gravel dumping" noise... the high pressure hose water hitting that stuff.  Here I'd been thinking that all fire hose water was super weirdly noisy but I now think it's just that it was hitting that stuff and really rattling it.

I didn't see anything about it in the news, so I assume no one was hurt, and it looks like the fire departments did a fantastic job keeping other surrounding (and attached!!!!) structures safe, but I don't live there so have not exactly walked onto the property to check it out, you know?   My best guess, knowing very little to nothing about this stuff is that it was caught quickly and we have departments (fire houses?) pretty nearby and so their response was probably pretty quick but even then I imagine they were there for at least the hour or so I was awake and some time before that and some time after I closed up my windows from the sound.  Maybe it wasn't even that big of a fire, I don't know, but it never showed up on the news or anything.

It did make me think though, since I, ahem, don't sleep with anything on.... that I should think about throwing more than a housecoat on if I ever do have to evacuate in the middle of the night.  I kept thinking about the affected apartment's residents being outside in their pjs for a couple of hours in the cold, even if it is Spring and no longer the freezing temps of Winter.  

Sure, I've done fire drills at school (I assume, I have no memory of it?) and at work but those were always just out, count everyone, ok good job, back in.  This was the first time I'd thought through the fact that it might be hours and if your building is not safe to reenter, even longer.  Damn.

I talked to Jason about it and he grew up out East and said that they were taught growing up to have a set of clothes laid out that you could grab as you evacuate.  And maybe that's something I'll have to start considering.  It could easily be like sweats and a shirt and socks that I could say are my gym clothes laid out but yeah, going to think through that a bit more, you know?  Also going to put it more into my brain to not *just* rush out, but to take a moment to either grab or put on clothes that will keep me warm and safer.  Yes it's important to get out quickly but being half naked in the middle of the night for who knows how long would not be great.  And yeah, even if I did wear pjs?  In winter, they wouldn't be enough for those darn cold nights.  Food for thought.  

So while it wasn't my best night of sleep, it was an adventure at a safe distance that made me think about a few things I wouldn't ordinarily have thought about.