Being Evacuated...

If you were to just come across this photo without knowing anything else, would it make you laugh? It looks like some new way to walk a child. Just leave it in it's crib and roll it down the street!

However, the situation that caused this was not at all funny. There was a gas leak in Salt Lake today, right near the University of Utah. It was massive, apparently, and they evacuated the entire campus along with several homes and businesses within a mile radius. There were 40,000 people on campus at the time and I was one of the lucky thousands who got to leave work early. As I was leaving I saw the firemen walking door to door of the houses and apartment complexes telling everyone to get out. They even sent us a reverse 911 call.

Some students even had to leave campus without their cars because there could not be any kind of spark in the area. Just think, if someone decided to light a cigarette - poof! We'd all have been burnt toast. Scary!

Yay for early days though! What an adventure!

This Is Not a Drill: Fire Evacuation 101

The following story is based on actual events. Names have been changed to protect the identity of those involved.

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A choir of angels...or demons. That's probably what a choir teacher typically dreams about at night, but tonight, Katie wasn't dreaming. Having just spent a long day at work trying to teach middle school students how to sing, she was exhausted and easily dropped off into a deep sleep. She was dead to the world. Dead, that is, until her roommate walked into her room at 12:30am and woke her up.

"Katie. Katie!!"

"Hmmmm?"

"The neighbor's house is on fire. We have to get out."

"Okay"

Katie had been in such a deep sleep that the gravity of what was happening less than 50 feet away from her didn't sink in. She rolled out of bed and stumbled around her room looking for her sweater, which is not an easy thing to do when you aren't wearing contacts. But she knew if she had to go outside it would be cold and she wanted a sweater to help keep her warm. Well, that and she wasn't wearing a bra.

"Where is she?"

Katie heard a man's voice coming from upstairs but she continued to look around for her sweater. Because she didn't completely understand what was happening, she was definitely taking her time. A couple seconds later she saw a blurred image of a man walk into her bedroom.

"You have to get out of here. Now!"

"Okay!" Katie replied. She grabbed a different sweater. It wasn't the warmer one she wanted, but it would have to do. She wrapped it around her and followed the man out of the house.

As she walked out the front door, she could see the sky around her was a brilliant orange. She turned her head to the left.

"Holy cow! That house is on fire!"

Reality hit and she began to feel the fear and panic inside her. She sat there watching and could only hope that her house wouldn't burn down too. The powerlines between the two houses were sparking and flames were jumping. She could do nothing but watch and pray that everything she owned wouldn't be turned to ash.

Two hours later the fire was contained and Katie and her roommate were able to go back inside their house. The only damage was a blown out window and some bubbling paint on one wall. Katie couldn't sleep after that. Her mind kept swirling with what had just happened. And she couldn't help but feel a deep sense of gratitude not only for the blurred man who kept pounding on their door, but for her roommate who managed to hear the incessant banging and answered it.

So the moral(s) of the story is: when someone is banging on your front door and back door in the middle of the night, answer it. And when they tell you to get out it's probably wise to not search around for a sweater! Apparently they will not hestitate to come into your room and drag you out, so be sure you are always wearing decent pajamas. And it might also help to have a pair of glasses close by so when you don't have time to put in your contacts, you'll still be able to see who the strange man is that's standing in your bedroom (who, in this case, turned out to be a Police Officer).

Oh the Woes...

Story 1: I got home from work one night last week and smelled a horrible stinch coming from the kitchen. All the windows were open airing out the house. My roommate (the one who owns the house) came out of her room and told me that she burned something in the microwave. I had smelled that horrible smell before (a few months back when a co-worker put popcorn in the microwave and put it on for 30 minutes) and I began to have horrible flashbacks. I had no idea what my roommate had burned, but my other roommate came home earlier in the day and said that she found a metal pan sitting in the sink. Oh, please tell me she didn't put a metal pan in the microwave! If she started a fire in the microwave, it's no wonder the house still stinks 5 days later! Seriously, if nobody hears from me after a few days, chances are I either died of carbon monoxide poisoning or else my house burned down with me in it*.

Story 2: Last night while sitting around my parent's house, my nephew came upstairs to tell his dad he cut his finger. In the best whiney voice he could muster he walked up to his dad and said "Daaaaaad, I cut my finger!". My brother-in-law looked at his hand and said "Where?" My nephew said "Right heeeerrrre. It stings really baaaaaaad". His dad looked looked harder and then said "Go ask Grandpa if he has a magnifying glass".

* On a more positive note, my roommate and I did manage to finally get the dryer vent hooked up this weekend so our other roommate (the one who owns the place) would stop using the dryer without a vent. That's one item we can cross off the list of reasons why we might need to call the fire department.

To the Rescue...

Last night we had a bit of excitement at our house. My roommate and I were watching a movie in my bedroom when all of a sudden my roommate said "Do you hear an alarm?" I listened for awhile and said "No, it's probably just the movie". I muted the TV and then I could faintly hear something but I still wasn't sure what it was. I got up and opened my window and I could then definitely hear an alarm, but I still couldn't tell where it was coming from. My roommate went to the kitchen and then said "It's the building next door. There are flashing lights and everything!"

I ran to the kitchen and we both peered outside. Everyone from that building had evacuated and was standing out near our stairwell. We were both so curious to find out what was going on, so my roommate went out and started chatting with them. I stayed inside awhile longer and continued to watch out the back window to see if the fire department was going to come. Indeed they did!


We could hear them clear down the street but they turned off their siren when they got to the complex. They parked right behind our building and four firemen jumped out (all fully clothed*) and made their way to the crowd of people waiting out in the cold. Within seconds, the blaring alarm (literally designed to wake the dead...unless the dead are watching a movie) was silenced.

Apparently, a couple living on the middle floor was trying to drill a hole somewhere and they hit the sprinkler pipe. Water started coming out which triggered the fire alarm. And if the sprinklers "go off" in one unit in the building then the entire building is put on alert. After silencing the alarm, the firemen made their way through a few of the units in the building to check things out, helping with blankets and towels to clean up the mess in the unit that was flooding with water. I'm assuming they turned the water off too, but nobody mentioned that.

It was kind of exciting, but probably because we all knew we weren't in any immediate danger. I thought it was interesting though that even though we technically live in Sandy, it was the Midvale Fire Department that showed up. Maybe they were closer, but even at that it took them about 10 minutes to get there.

But just the same, I'm so grateful to ANY fire department that comes to the rescue because we just might need them in the future. We finally figured out (after three different occassions) that the smoke detector that keeps going off whenever we use the oven (even though there is never any smoke) is actually the carbon monoxide detector! Yeah...that could be a problem.

Excitement always abounds at my house!

* As I was waiting for TRAX the other day, a fire truck pulled to a stop across the street. The driver jumped out and appreared to only be in a t-shirt and boxer shorts. He then walked to the side of the truck (the side facing all of us), pulled out his gear and proceeded to dress right there in the middle of the road while the other firemen helped with the situation they got called out for in the first place.