Apartments con Fuego!
Around 5:30 I'm just getting everything packed up at work to head home, and I get a call on my cellphone. I very rarely get calls on my cellphone, as very few people are privy to the number.
"Hello?"
Maggie answers. "Oh my God oh my God oh my God..."
Most of the discussion continues along this line until she tells me that one of the apartment buildings is burning, and that she, Z, and Ein are watching it burn. She's rattled because it's the building right across the sidewalk from hers, and I hear her praying audibly that the wind not change.
Well, I head home, fight my way through rush hour traffic as usual, and see no plumes of smoke... until I get onto my exit at Little Blue Parkway. I can just barely see some smoke over the hills. As I get behind Independence Commons (the shopping center near our apartments), I see that the police are blocking off Jackson Drive. Okay, time to go around. I go around and through the Commons parking lot and onto the other side of Jackson...
...to find it also blocked off. Great. I have to park behind the Commons and walk to the complex.
And oh, the people, the many people who are either gawking or displaced, the news crews, the helicopters overhead, and of course, the star of our production - the building on fire.
CON FUEGO!
The roof is gone, the tops of the walls are sagging, fire crews are trying to spray water into the building from below, and people are sitting around in the grass, watching, some crying. Lots of hugging and such. And oh, the smoke. See, the wind's moving in from the southwest, so all the smoke is going northeast. Of course, that's the direction I'm walking in, and I can barely see our building. Nothing like a nice walk through a cloud of smoke for the lungs, I tell you. It smelled like cigarettes and fireworks, with a hint of mesquite thrown in for flavor.
It's 10:53 now, and there are still fire crews working on the building. There were hotspots flaring up into visible flames about an hour ago, so who knows how much longer they'll be there? One thing is sure, though -- this isn't going to be like the other building that caught fire in February. That one only damaged one apartment seriously, and the building was still structurally intact. No, this building is going to be unsalvageable. I get the impression that it's utterly gutted, at least on the top floor, possibly the second floor too.
And of course, you have to feel for the people living in those apartments. They've lost most of their worldly possessions, if not all of them, and they've got nowhere to go. I doubt there are spare apartments -- most of those are still occupied by people displaced by the February fire. That building's still not completely repaired, although they're closer to getting it done every day. The exterior's completely fixed, and it looks like they're repanelling the breezeways now. After that, it's replacing the drywall and wiring inside, and then all the cosmetic work. Maybe by the end of the year, but that doesn't help anyone right now.
So if you're the praying type, pray for those people. They need God's help in a big way right now.
"Hello?"
Maggie answers. "Oh my God oh my God oh my God..."
Most of the discussion continues along this line until she tells me that one of the apartment buildings is burning, and that she, Z, and Ein are watching it burn. She's rattled because it's the building right across the sidewalk from hers, and I hear her praying audibly that the wind not change.
Well, I head home, fight my way through rush hour traffic as usual, and see no plumes of smoke... until I get onto my exit at Little Blue Parkway. I can just barely see some smoke over the hills. As I get behind Independence Commons (the shopping center near our apartments), I see that the police are blocking off Jackson Drive. Okay, time to go around. I go around and through the Commons parking lot and onto the other side of Jackson...
...to find it also blocked off. Great. I have to park behind the Commons and walk to the complex.
And oh, the people, the many people who are either gawking or displaced, the news crews, the helicopters overhead, and of course, the star of our production - the building on fire.
CON FUEGO!
The roof is gone, the tops of the walls are sagging, fire crews are trying to spray water into the building from below, and people are sitting around in the grass, watching, some crying. Lots of hugging and such. And oh, the smoke. See, the wind's moving in from the southwest, so all the smoke is going northeast. Of course, that's the direction I'm walking in, and I can barely see our building. Nothing like a nice walk through a cloud of smoke for the lungs, I tell you. It smelled like cigarettes and fireworks, with a hint of mesquite thrown in for flavor.
It's 10:53 now, and there are still fire crews working on the building. There were hotspots flaring up into visible flames about an hour ago, so who knows how much longer they'll be there? One thing is sure, though -- this isn't going to be like the other building that caught fire in February. That one only damaged one apartment seriously, and the building was still structurally intact. No, this building is going to be unsalvageable. I get the impression that it's utterly gutted, at least on the top floor, possibly the second floor too.
And of course, you have to feel for the people living in those apartments. They've lost most of their worldly possessions, if not all of them, and they've got nowhere to go. I doubt there are spare apartments -- most of those are still occupied by people displaced by the February fire. That building's still not completely repaired, although they're closer to getting it done every day. The exterior's completely fixed, and it looks like they're repanelling the breezeways now. After that, it's replacing the drywall and wiring inside, and then all the cosmetic work. Maybe by the end of the year, but that doesn't help anyone right now.
So if you're the praying type, pray for those people. They need God's help in a big way right now.