Her: You know why I
love firemen?
Me: Uh oh, I don’t
know.
Her: Because I was in
a fire!
Me: Oh were you?
Her: That building
you picked me up was on fire.
Me: Oh wow. Okay.
Her: And here’s the
story, I know you like fire stories. So,
I’m sitting at home, I smell the smell coming out of the vents and I go “Uh-Oh
that’s not a good smell. That smells too
chemically! There’s something wrong!” So I called the front desk, and Jason, we
just left, and I said “Jason? It smells like a fire.” And he said, “Actually, there is a fire. The seventh floor is on fire.” He said, “But
you cannot leave your unit.” So then I
go, “Holy” (as she puts her hands up)
Me: Crap?
Her: And I didn’t
know, of course now I know you can’t leave.
So then now, I go and look in the hall and it is slightly smoky. It’s not that bad and I’m kinda looking and I
go, “Okay, I guess I have to stay in my unit.”
So then I call the building manager, because I’m on the board, and he
said “I’m coming to the fire. I’m on my
way, I’m walking.” And he said, “You
know you gotta stay in your unit.” So I’m like, “OK” So then I hear some noise
outside of my unit. So then I DO open my
door and it is black! A minute later,
you know, as a fireman, it is black! But then I see my neighbor who is
disabled. She’s on disability. She has
trouble walking. So I see her and I say,
“Come to my unit and wait with me”
Because I can’t leave her in her unit.
She can’t walk. So I said, “Come
to my unit I will take care of you.” So
she comes, which was a good thing because it turned out she was right above the
fire.
Me: OH Wow
Her: There was more
smoke in her unit than in mine. So then
we go and sit in my unit and then my property manager, I call him, because you
know panic strikes! So he said, “You know,
put towels under your door.” And he
forgot to say wet towels. But we did put
towels and that did help a bit. And
actually, one of my neighbors put tape around the door. That would be smarter, but I didn’t do that
sh!#! So then we were basically burning away in there with
smoke inhalation. So we, like, put some
towels on our faces, and it was all black, my unit was completely black with
smoke. We hear them fighting the fire,
they’re breaking walls down below us, we hear them fighting. The crews are, like, fighting away,
desperately, trying to kill the fire.
Uhm, so then, at one point, the smoke gets a little lighter, cause they
were winning the fire. So then at this
point, I’m trying to think about my life, because you really don’t have anything
to do, because, as Jesse(her fireman friend) told me later, I was on the 9th
floor and the ladder wasn’t getting to me.
He said, “Yeah, the ladder wasn’t getting to you.”
Me: That’s
right. Anything above 5, it’s over.
Her: Yeah, he said,
“We wouldn’t be able to get to you and that would be it!” So then time is passing, you know, we’re
getting smoke inhalation, I’m thinking of my life, sending texts goodbye. (as she laughs)
Me: Oh My Goodness!
Her: And then,
finally, the door opens, and there’s a row, they created a wall cause you can’t
see sh!#! They created a wall with their
bodies to the elevator and they go, “Do you want to leave your unit?” And we were like, “We’re outa here!!!” We run out of there and go down. The only thing that felt like a bummer was
they didn’t have any oxygen. We all
needed oxygen.
Me: Right
Her: But they
would’ve made us go to the hospital. I’m
like, “NO, NO, I just need a hit of oxygen.
We all need a hit of oxygen.
Me: I need a can of
Perri-AIRe! (we both laugh)
Her: Exactly, because
our lungs were all messed up. All messed
up. So then, we escaped, we went to the
next building. So then, my sister-in-law
was a news reporter. She was an anchor,
a nightly news anchor. She said, uhm, “You
were in there?” and I said, “YES! I just escaped!” She said, “Okay, well, come
across the street, I want to do an exclusive report with you” Well, so I go across and there’s a fireman, a
fire chief is talking… about the fire. And
so then, I see him and I grabbed him and I said, “ Thank you so much for saving
my life!” and he was like “What?!!” and
was like “Oh, your welcome, Oh my God.”
And all the reporters saw me and said, “No, No, No. She’s not getting an
exclusive.” So I ended up talking to all
of them. You can Google it!!!
Me: Oh Goodness!
Her: So then, I got
to ask the fire chief, “Was there something else that I could’ve done?” and he
was like, “No. The only thing you
could’ve done differently, if you really needed oxygen, was take up your
toilet” Which I was NOT going to
do. “and you could have air and you
could breathe for few more hours.”
Me: Breathe from the
sewers!
Her: So, true enough,
we were in the news because we were the first high rise, at that point, that had not had a fatality cause we had done
that life safety stuff. And it turned
out that the place where there was the fire, this electrical thing, because we
had old electrical outlets, it stuck with the curtains and blew the whole
thing. And he did not lock his door
Me: So he got out
Her: So the fire
dudes were like, “If you had locked that door… but you had not closed it, we
would have been up against it” Instead
we lost the whole floor, the whole damn floor and part of the eighth floor.
Me: Well, you said
the 8th floor was mostly smoke damaged or actual fire?
Her: No there was
fire damage. Yeah, they had to change
the windows and the 7th floor was down to the studs.
Me: Oh My goodness
Her: Yeah! So that’s
my fire story!
Me: Nice!
Her: So that’s why I
really appreciate firemen.
Me: Or fire dudes as
you like to call them
Her: Yeah, Fire dudes
knocked on the door, and created a wall
with their bodies. Fire dudes were like,
“We were able to open the door and not get a back-draft!” So yay! That’s what Fire dudes do!
I now know how a victim of a high rise fire thinks. The Fire Dudes are coming!!
Thanks for reading!
