Fire in the neighborhood and other recent happenings

Sunday afternoons I stay home and let the kids have a much needed nap while Dan attends choir (then need tenors more than altos).  A couple weeks ago during choir I got a text message from a friend asking if the fire was near by us.  I hadn’t heard anything, I was just curled up reading the Ensign magazine.

So I went outside to investigate.  I could smell the smoke instantly!  I looked out off the balcony and could see a huge crowd of onlookers accross the street looking at something I couldn’t see.  I went inside and made a few calls to make sure those I knew in the building the fire appeared to be in were ok.  They were all in different buildings and fine.

I left my kids sleeping in the apartment and took my camera to snap a few pictures of my own (the one above is from the news website).  Here’s what I got:

{From the balcony, not much going on, cop cars are a regular occurrence in our low-end apartment complex.} {as I got closer I saw more emergency vehicles}

{Saw this news van peeling onto the scene, there were several.} {The fire was out by the time I got there, it appeared the firemen wanted to soak everything just in case.}

There were 24 apartments in the building, all were damaged. Over 50 people lost their homes and most of their possessions that day.  FORTUNATELY, no one was hurt.  I don’t think anyone was even taken to the hospital!  Such a relief.  I read it was a 2 alarm fire.

I found out the next morning that Rani (remember her from Girl’s Camp?) and her mom lived in that building.  They now live closer to me (her mom is the one I mentioned in my last post that Sophie gave “compliments” to) and are doing fine.  The Red Cross has done a lot for them and so has their church (they aren’t members of my church, Rani just came to camp because she was invited).  But without renter’s insurance they have nearly nothing left.  I’ve been happy that I had few extra things around like a shower curtain and sweatshirt that I could give them.  But mostly I provided transportation and helped them learn how to use the new things in their apartment, more than happy to help.  Can you imagine?  I bought a renter’s insurance policy the next morning. :)  If you think about it, it just takes ONE person in your big apartment building to make a mistake and the whole building could BURN!  Scary thought, and this incident made it more real to me.

The “other recent happening” from the title was that while I had a night out with some girl friends Dan not only offered to watch the girls but took them to Chuck E. Cheese!  What a cool dad.  I told him that I could make them pizza before I left (a requirement EVERY Friday night) but he said he wanted to take his girls out on a date.  He’s such a cool Dad.  And to make it even better, the girls finally got to ride in “Daddy’s cute little car.”  They loved it.  Thanks Dad!!