Fire!

[thedeadlyhook]

Well, that was neat. Today I stopped a fire.

On my morning walk, heading up toward Golden Gate Park, I heard this sizzle-popping sound. Retraced my steps a few yards to investigate and holee-hell, an overhead electrical line had thrown up sparks and smoke, fried through its casing, and was now burning merrily. Like a little stovetop fire, about twelve inches away from the building the power line went into.

I asked another passerby if he had a phone; he didn't, and suggested I ring an apartment bell instead. Which I did - climbed the stairs, buzzed the buzzer closest to the problem and told the lady who answered the door. And then told some other residents as they were coming out to go to work. Everybody was fairly open-mouthed - I mean, there you are, coming out of your building in the morning, and here's this minor conflagration doing its campfire-style thing, right there in the open air. Inside of fifteen minutes, a firetruck rolled up, and about five or six people and four big dogs from the building got to stand on the sidewalk and rubberneck as one of the firefighters went up to the second floor apartment and put out the little fire with an extinguisher. The fire was right outside the window.

Apparently, one of the residents told me, they'd turned on the heat that morning, and all the lights had dimmed; I also heard another resident say the same thing had happened when she'd been using her hair dryer. Obviously an overload and yeah, old building. Which reminded me of one of our old apartments, the one in which the lights sometimes dimmed when the refrigerator kicked on. Scary.

But what really scares me to think about is how long a little fire like that might have burned without anyone noticing, if everyone had been at work. Outside, no smoke, nothing to set off a fire alarm, but how long would it have taken to have burned its way up the line until it reached the building? Or ignited one of the other lines?

Really scary.

Comments

[bogwitch.livejournal.com]

Now, I suppose, they'll have re-wire the whole building.

I had to call the FB once when my mum set her kitchen alight. She left me in the house to phone while she and my friend evacuated.

[timeofchange.livejournal.com]

Go you! Fire is scary. It can do so much damage so fast, huh?

[danceswithwords.livejournal.com]

And you weren't even wearing your superhero cape! (Or were you?)

In the apartment I lived in in the Mission, the wiring was distributed such that if you ran the dishwasher in the kitchen, a computer in the front bedroom, and turned the heat on in the living room, it would blow a fuse. It was awesome. My current house still has the original gas ceiling fixtures, and they're a little leaky. Oh San Francisco, you lovable city full of picturesque death traps you.

[desoto-hia873.livejournal.com]

You're a hero! Good thing you looked up when you were walking. I tend to look at the ground - I'd probably have missed it altogether.

[asta77.livejournal.com]

Now, will you be getting the key to the city or the fire extinguisher? ;) What really scares me is that there are people who probably would have just kept on walking.

[cirrisian.livejournal.com]

You, my dear, are a true hero...sadly, this makes you my arch-nemesis.

Ill buy a red cape for you, and a black one for myself. Then, we can don them in the deep night and have epic battles of great justice!

...or I can just commend you on a job well done. I think my first idea is loads more fun.

[rahirah]

Go you with the civic responsiblity!

[prophecygirrl.livejournal.com]

Wow! Very impressive!

Be careful, though, this hero thing can be very addictive. Just ask Spike.



Kudos, anyway.

[queenofattolia.livejournal.com]

Good Lord. And practically every house around there is made of wood, right? Jeebus. You probably saved lives, if not homes and personal possessions. Good on you.

Makes me wonder about the lines running through big old trees in my neighborhood. Practically all the houses around here are made of stucco, but still...

[wickedgillie.livejournal.com]

One thing I've found in buildings like the one you described is that there is either no extinguisher at all on each floor, or it's several years out of date and left with barely enough pressure to blow out a birthday candle. I know we had to report our landlord (who lived in the next building, rather than the abstentee landlords one usually finds) for her extinguishers being out of date. She fixed it once, and then it slowly got to the point where it was expired again. (lived there 7 years, lol)

Anyhoo, YOU are a HERO my dear! Well done!!!