Fire, baaad

There's a first time for everything, and I had one such first experience last night: there was a fire in my building.

I was chatting with my neighbour at 12:30 at night when we both smelt burning wood. Naturally we didn't think anything of it, but after about 10-15 minutes, we could see smoke (we both thought it was coming from the house next door). Having become suspicious, I called the local police to investigate, but they suggested I call 911. After telling the 911 operator my life story, the fire alarm finally went off (this was also the firs time I ever called 911).

We descended the stairs amidst increasingly worse carbon monoxide. After waiting outisde for about a minute, what looked like Ottawa's entire fire department arrived. I'm guessing a few of us called 911 at about the same time.

After an hour or so, everything was back to normal. Parts of the building still reek of smoke, but it's much better than it was last night.

Finally, something to tell the grandkids one day.