Fire

We were sitting at home watching a little TV on Sunday night after we put Catherine to sleep.  I smelled something burning or maybe something like plastic melting.  We hopped up to look around our house and see what it was.  We couldn't find anything.  Then we opened the apartment door into the hallway and it was filled with smoke.  

James jumped in to emergency.  "You get Catherine up. I'll get our things. We'll go down floor by floor and use this hammer to break out the windows when we need to get air."  

We tried this plan, but realized almost immediately that the smoke was too thick.  We called 119 and told them we had a fire.  They were already on scene and already working to bring people out of the building.  They told us to open the windows, to breathe through wet cloths, and hold fast until the firemen got to our floor.

We knew by now that the situation was serious enough that we wouldn't be returning that evening and we had a few more moments to gather a few more things and prepare to be out of our home for awhile  I sat with Catherine by an open window while James gathered our things.  By now the electricity was out and we could hear the sounds from the firemen breaking windows and people yelling at each other from various floors to those already outside.
  
After a while 3 firemen burst in our door.  I wondered what Catherine was thinking at this point.  It was dark with no lights and then 3 men with reflective coats, air tanks, masks over their faces, and huge flashlights just came in.  I'm sure it was a scary sight for her little eyes, but a welcomed relief for us to see them.  They helped us get down 18 flights of smoke-filled stairs.  We would go down 3 or 4 flights and then stick our heads out one of the windows to get some fresh-ish air.  The farther down we went the thicker the smoke and the harder to see and breath.  Finally on the 3rd floor there was a balcony we could climb out on through the window.  From here they gave us their masks we could wear for the last little bit and they went without. I went down first and James followed a few moments later with Catherine.  I'm sure it was just a few moments, but being outside on the ground floor and just waiting for Catherine and James to come out of the building too seemed like hours.  They had taken a bit longer because they were (to no avail) trying to find a mask Catherine could wear.  Another big relief when they cam out of the front doors.  

We went across the courtyard to the complex office and waited for bit while we decided the best course of action was to get to a hotel, get cleaned up, and let C get back to sleep.  

That day we thought the fire started in the basement, but when James returned the next day he found out it was actually one of the first floor apartments.  I don't know if anyone was living there, but it was being used as a mahjong parlor.  We also found out that one older man had passed away.  Here are some pictures (although not very good ones) of the first floor where it started.

When James returned, the elevators still weren't working.  They had at least unlocked the doors to the roof which meant we could go to the second entrance to our building, take the elevator up to the 27th floor, walk up one flight of stairs to the roof, cross the roof to our entrance, and walk down 9 flights to the 18th floor.  Complicated, but better than having to walk up 18 flights.

We stayed at the hotel 2 nights and at at friend's house one night.  Catherine and I mostly stayed away and James and another friend took care of all of the cleaning.  Almost every piece of clothing and bedding had to be washed, all surfaces had to be wiped down and because our kitchen cabinets are open, ALL our dishes had to be washed (by hand).  It was a big task.  We don't have a dryer so we could only do as much laundry as we could find a place to dry so it took a week or so to get caught up.

Now almost everything is back to normal.  The first floor still looks terrible, but all the windows that were broken have been replaced and bars across the windows in the stairway have been repaired.  At least one of our elevators works each day.

We are so thankful we got out safely, that our possessions were unharmed, that we had friends to watch Catherine, friends to help clean, friends to stay with, and the finances to stay at a hotel for a few nights without any worry.  We're thankful for all the friends and family who wrote and called to check on us.  We're mostly thankful the whole ordeal is over :)