Fire bad

DiscoZombie

<div class="IPBDescription">Fresh start</div>I casually mentioned in another thread that I recently lost everything I own in an apartment fire. It sucked. I didn't plan on making a big deal out of it here, but by special request of lolf I am starting a thread =p

I lived in an ~100 apartment building and pretty much the whole thing burned to the ground on 1/10. Amazingly no humans were hurt. However, a lot of people lost pets, me included. My wife and I had 4 cats. My wife was in the building at the time but she had like no notice before she had to evacuate and she couldn't get any of the cats to safety. We barely care about the possessions we lost but losing our cats was devastating. We are so pissed at how non helpful the firefighters were. I would have risked my life to save them if they'd have let me. Our section of the building wasn't even burning yet but they wouldn't rescue the cats nor would they let me rescue them. About 50 firefighters were standing around doing nothing the whole time.

Anyway, the red cross was on the scene to give people a place to stay, but my wife and I didn't need their help, since we have a ton of family and friends in the area who came to our rescue. We stayed with my wife's family for the first week. A friend of hers stopped by on the first night with a huge bag of clothes and necessities she stopped and bought for us, which was really moving. It's been over 2 weeks now and people are still giving us stuff. My job stepped in right away and set us up with a furnished place to live for 30 days. Really made me feel appreciated by them. My coworkers and my wife's classmates and teachers all started collections for us and showered us with money and things we needed.

Honestly, we will probably wind up in a better apartment with better stuff thanks to this. My wife and I are simple creatures - we didn't have much in the way of material things, we spend most of our time in the digital world. Our first priorities were clothes and new computers. :p I built myself a new machine much better than my old one. Everyone's generosity has really opened our eyes to how loved and appreciated we are. I'm sure a lot of other people in that building are in a much worse place than us right now, since it wasn't the best neighborhood to begin with. The building was half gentrified and half poor folks. I hope no one wound up truly homeless or anything.

We didn't have apartment insurance, so there's no money coming in there, sadly. I'm not a big believer in insurance in general, but apartment insurance is so cheap, it's one of the few insurances that seem worth it... so I wish we had had it =p The place we're moving into next weekend requires insurance so we have it now. The fire might have been electrical, in which case, there might be a class action suit at some point. Doubt it though.

I wish I could get back into the building, but I think it's "structurally unsound" and no one's allowed in. I'm sure that's not stopping looters. I'm sure some things could have been salvaged, and I would have liked to have had some closure by seeing the place from the inside.

Here are some videos of the inferno:

<a href="http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/breaking/West-Philly-Apartment-Fire-113227474.html" target="_blank">http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/breaki...-113227474.html</a>
<a href="http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/breaking/Video_West_Philly_Apartment_Fire_1st_Ground_Report_Philadelphia-113235074.html" target="_blank">http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/breaki...-113235074.html</a>
<a href="http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=7889862" target="_blank">http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=...&id=7889862</a>
<a href="http://www.wfrv.com/news/local/Philadelphia-fire-crews-battle-5-alarm-blaze-113242789.html" target="_blank">http://www.wfrv.com/news/local/Philadelphi...-113242789.html</a>

We were on the top floor, which got it the worst, as you can see.

A couple photos to memorialize our babies:

<img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/99279/IMG_20101210_105853.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

<img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/99279/IMG_20101104_175514.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

Panigg

Honestly, I was expecting that you ask for monies in this. But after reading this all I can say is: ###### happens and good luck.

BTW: I can understand why you're pissed at the fire fighters but I'm sure there is a policy that prevents them from going into a burning building to rescue pets. And I believe that policy is quite reasonable.

lolfighter

Sad story about the cats, my condolences. Material posessions are just objects, but having had pets myself I know how they can truly become part of the family. Your frustration and anger at the firefighters is understandable, but I agree with Panigg that the rules are there for a reason.

I remember when I first moved out, my mother wouldn't stop badgering me about getting home insurance. Phone rings. "Did you get insurance yet?" "No mom." "Well get to it!" "Yes mom." She was right of course - even if you're careful your house can burn down anyway.

Here's a question: I consider myself a creature of habit. I moved on the 15th, so just like you I'm getting used to living in a new place, albeit under happier circumstances. I'm still tryingto sort of develop my routine procedures. I imagine it must be harder for you, since unlike you I still have all the furniture I'm used to. How often does the realisation that some thingy you were used to is gone hit you? Or was the transition pretty quick?

That_Annoying_Kid

from a standpoint of human life, all is well that ends well

property can be replaced

but the gatos is just a tragedy!

Scythe

Sorry to hear about your little pusskins. That kind of loss will take a long time to recover from. Stuff is stuff but pets are precious.

--Scythe--

spellman23

=[

DiscoZombie

Thanks for the kind words folks.

<!--quoteo(post=1828006:date=Jan 28 2011, 12:26 AM:name=lolfighter)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (lolfighter @ Jan 28 2011, 12:26 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1828006"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Here's a question: I consider myself a creature of habit. I moved on the 15th, so just like you I'm getting used to living in a new place, albeit under happier circumstances. I'm still tryingto sort of develop my routine procedures. I imagine it must be harder for you, since unlike you I still have all the furniture I'm used to. How often does the realisation that some thingy you were used to is gone hit you? Or was the transition pretty quick?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well, I wasn't really attached to any of our material things, so it doesn't really hit me what we're missing that often. We needed clothes and bathroom supplies right away, but we both only owned a few outfits to begin with. Neither of us cooks so we don't miss any kitchen supplies. We're living in a fully furnished apartment right now which is hella nice, so the other furnishing type stuff we lost hasn't set in yet. When we move to our new real place, it will suddenly become clear how little we have =p we ordered some furniture but we still need some important stuff like a bed, a couch, lamps, a tv, etc.

The only thing that really hits us that's gone is the cats. They were a big part of our lives. They were all less than 4 years old - way too young for this to happen. It's so frustrating. Do I think firefighters should run through a wall of flames with the roof collapsing to rescue animals? No. However, this building was huge, and the flames didn't reach our apartment until 2 or 3 hours after the fire started. I could have rescued 50 cats in that time. Instead, my wife and I had to sit and watch the flames inch closer to our apartment, powerless, wondering when the exact moment was that our cats would suffocate or burn to death, wondering if there's any way they could escape, all while with tens of firefighters stood around doing nothing but ignoring people. Left quite a bad taste in my mouth, to put it mildly.

lolfighter

I debated with myself whether I should post this, because you're probably not interested in me arguing with you about this, and I wasn't there so I didn't see what you saw. But the firefighters quite likely have a policy that says "don't let people into burning buildings," and they follow that policy to the letter. And doing so probably saves lives. Because if they let you in and you get into trouble in there, they will either have to go in there and save you, endangering their own lives, or they'll have to explain to their superiors and your next of kin why a man who wasn't even in the building when the fire started is now dead on their watch.
I realize that this is hardly comforting to you, but the firefighters' main job is to preserve human life. And letting someone into a burning building because maybe or even probably he'll come back out safely is not the way to save human lives. Because those are still worse odds than "all the tenants are safely out of the building, no humans died tonight."

So again, my condolences for your loss, but the Philadelphia fire brigade does not deserve your anger.

That_Annoying_Kid

What part of West Philly? A good friend of mine was born and raised there and when I casually brought this up that was his inquiry

DiscoZombie

It was at 48th and Walnut. We're out of the city now though and never looking back =p

Panigg

<!--quoteo(post=1828382:date=Jan 29 2011, 10:19 AM:name=That_Annoying_Kid)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (That_Annoying_Kid @ Jan 29 2011, 10:19 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1828382"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->What part of West Philly? A good friend of mine was born and raised there and when I casually brought this up that was his inquiry<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Did he spend most of his time on the playground?