We Didn't Start the Fire

The following events took place between 4:50am and 7:15am.

5:10am: Fire alarms in the hallway go off. Kinda early for the kids to be pulling the alarm. *sniff...sniff* Okay, that smells...chemically. (brain hadn't kicked in yet, chemically was the best I could do)

5:11am: *get up, check apartment for anything left on/plugged in/check for horribleness*

5:12am: *satisfied that it's not our apartment*

5:13am: Oh holy shit, those are fire engine sirens. *jump into a pair of sweats, grab Folder of All Importantness!!!!, check for cats....no cats in sight, sorry kids, Godspeed, leash dogs, grab keys and phone and bag, out the door*

5:14am: *tests the door handle to make sure there's no heat (childhood training pays off), greeted with a hallway full of smoke...and a fireman* "Sir, you have to evacuate the building!" Heading out now!

5:15am-5:20am *Hanging out across the street from the building, rumors abound that the fire was on a floor a few floors below ours. Fire has been contained at this point, now getting the smoke out of the building*

5:30am: Okay boys, we're outside, it's morning, might just as well do the morning walk.

5:30am-6:30am: *Back across the street, hanging out. Receive confirmation on where the fire took place.* Hey boys, let's go see if we can see where it happened!

6:30am-6:45am: Well whaddaya know, we can see the whole burned out apartment, and the scorch marks up the building.

6:45am: *back across the street to original position. Spy the Channel 6 New van, along with bored looking camera man smoking a cigarette with the camera trained on the front door of the apartment building* Hey, just to let you know, the action is around back. If you actually, you know, want to get a shot that has some potential value, go around back. "Really?" Yup. And just so you know, there are two other stations here, and no cameras around back. "Um...do you think I should go back there?"

7:10am: *Everyone save those living on the floor that the fire started on are allowed back in. WM goes back upstairs, opens all of the windows, turns on all of the fans in the attempt to air the place out.*

***
As far as our apartment goes, nothing was damaged, not a lot of smoke, it just smells like there's been something burning in the area. Leaving the fans on today with the windows open should air things out well. The hallways, however, still reek.

!!!! - Yes, I'm aware that that's not a word. But seriously, you should have a folder/container with all of your important information in it that you can just snag and run out of your residence in just this kind of emergency.