Sweet Scents A-burning, Smelling Like Wild Fire

The apartment two floors directly below me caught fire the other night at 2 in the morning. Thank goodness for jetlag and my irregular sleeping hours, I was still awake at that time.

My apartment apparently is situated beside the emergency staircase, so the night the fire happened, at 2am, I heard what could be 20 pairs of feet running quickly downstairs or upstairs. I also heard firetrucks and policemen arriving on site. I smelled smoke, got out of bed and found my bathroom full of smoke! In a situation like this, trying to think straight is a very difficult thing to do. Panic and fear lets you make stupid judgments and decisions. I just wanted to get out of the building as fast as I could.

I thought, fuck all my worldly possessions. I just took my passport and I-20, picked up my bag (which contained my personal stuff, keys and cellphone), wore a warm coat and dashed outside.

The hallway looked like a scene in a horror movie - it was deserted, grey and smokey. People may have been still sleeping. "Hello?", no answer. I opened the door to the staircase and I could not see anything else but smoke. Going down there would've been a very bad idea, as I can suffer or die from extreme suffocation. I didn't know if the fire was coming from upstairs or downstairs, as when I called the doorman, he didn't say where but said it had already been put out (perhaps to prevent more panic?).

And so, back to my room I went. I breathed fresh air out of my opened window, looked out (... and found about 6 firetrucks, 3 ambulances and 3 police cars! Remember how proactive New York is when it comes to situations like this?) and prayed.

There was a knock on my door, so I quickly ran and opened it. It was a firefighter. A very tall, big man who wore his firefighting suit so appropriately plus a gas mask (Kinda one of those costumes gigolos use at bachelorette parties? "Where's the fire?! It's so hot in here." Hahah!). For one second, my panicky psyche made him look like Frankenstein come alive, but it felt safer when my brain realized he wasn't. Haha. He said I should just stay in the room - which I thought is really the safest option.

It lasted for about an hour, and my neighbors were awoken too, just watching... and waiting. I guess we all shared the same feeling, hoping that nobody got hurt during the fire. I guess no one did. :)

Today, I found out that the fire was started by a small scented candle. Who sleeps with a burning candle on? Perhaps he/she innocently just wanted a fresher apartment smell. But, aren't there scented plug-ins anyway? And yet, after everything that had happened, you just can't help but feel sorry for the person anyway.

The day after the fire, life went on like nothing happened. One apartment got toasted, but my building is still intact. My neighbors moved on (well, except for the unlucky ones surrounding that ill-fated apartment). New York moved on. Ahh, the city of the resilient. It never even made the news, but it made it to my blog. :)