Stop. Drop. Roll Out!

            Around 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 25, four fire trucks were parked outside of my apartment building in response to a situation that began on Tuesday, Oct. 23.

            On Tuesday night, the apartment building across from mine was evacuated due to a fire accident.  When my roommate and I were walking to our apartment that night, we noticed that all of the lights were off across the street and there were red signs on each door.  We went over to “investigate” and the signs said that the building was unsafe to live in and that no one should be on the property, so we got out of there.  I did notice that the stove, toaster, and microwave were pulled out of apartment 5.  A student who lives in the building told me that a resident in apartment 5 turned the stove on, walked away to send an email, and then returned to see that the stove had caught on fire.  Because of this, all of the residents had to leave the building for 24 hours.  The landlords did not give them a place to stay for the night and if residents were caught in the building, they would be fined.

            When I asked around last night, no one knew why the fire department was there.  The fact that there were four trucks on site made it seem like the building was about to explode.  One resident told me that they knocked on everyone’s door and ordered them to evacuate the property.  The firefighters broke into apartment 5 and apartment 2 (which is directly under apartment 5).  Once they were in, they set up some fans and then waited around until about 10:15 p.m.  Residents were not allowed back in until all was clear.  What a night!