Posted by Sari
Ben wanted to know more about the fire, and I want to tell more about the fire, because, you know, fire, woo! Exciting. And scary. And I just got my Buffy DVD’s so just live with the lame efforts of valley speak.
Anyway, I woke up little before seven cursing the jaintor who obviously was cleaning the yard from snow with his machinery because there were flashing lights and the annoying beep-beep-beep sound the snow plows make when they are on reverse. Then there started this thumping noise somewhere above us, and though the kids upstairs are often noisy, they are not that noisy. So I got up and opened the blinds just in time to see the fire-truck extending its crane the balcony above us and to the left, lots of fire-men with and without smoke helmets, police officers and paramedics running around and hanging about. At this point I made the brilliant deduction our building might be on fire and notified Jukka. He said someting like “ghaanuff” and did not seem that interested. Next time I looked out there was smoke billowing out somewhere above us so I reiterated my firm belief in the fire in the building, and finally got Jukka up.
The nice thing about living on the ground floor is that unless we for some unfathomable reason wanted to barricade ourselves in the sauna, there is always an exit. So we had no problems acting as one is supposed to: kept all the doors and windows shut and waited with our clothes on. I honestly did not even start thinking what to save except my USB memory stick with all my “stuff” in it.
The crane got the woman out of the burning apartment and as Jukka says, she was really shaken and not all there. Ater about an hour of hectic action the police, firemen and the paramedics wound their operation down and left. The newspaper story on the fire said that the firemen suspect that the fire started from more than one location in the living room, so that points to an arson or an attempt of suicide by arson or something like that.
So, not really that exciting. The burnt apartment looks really spooky with broken glass still on the frames of windows and soot all over the place, and apparently everything in there was totally destroyed. The hallway still smells a strange combination of smoke and some strong cleaning agent. Our buzzer-phone is out of order, but there does not seem to be any water or smoke damage to our apartment. The fire was also a bonding experience for all the people living in the house, Jukka and I have been gossiping with neighbours we have not even said hi during the four years we have lived here. I am not quite sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing…
So there you have it the exciting and dramatic tale of our building being in fire. I am off to see Jukka, will write more later.
Sari
Eating Muffins 