2 posts tagged “fire”

A semester of college never properly starts until the first time the fire alarm goes off in your dorm.  As you can guess, that's exactly what happened this morning.  I had returned to my room for the two hour break I have between my morning classes and my afternoon class.  It took me a while to realize what it was...the fire bell sounded more like someone with a really obnoxious alarm clock rather than a real alarm.  As soon as I figured out what it was (I peeped out the door and saw an RA knocking on all the doors), I told my roommate to climb out of bed and stick something on her feet.

I overheard a small snippet of conversation between two RAs on the way out of the building to the effect of this not being a drill, but I wasn't certain if I had heard them correctly at the time.  The south wing girls gathered in the parking lot closest to us until the RA in charge of us told us we had to stand in the field across the street.  I was still trying to figure out if I had heard what I thought I heard from those two RAs, then I catch a whiff of smoke.  I look around and discover that a girl directly behind me had just lit a Marlboro and was huffing away.  I mean, lighting up a cigarette when everyone else around her is trying to figure out if it's a drill or the real thing?  Could this girl have exhibited any worse taste than that?  (Granted, I think smoking exhibits incredibly poor taste period, but smoking during a evacuation that might have been for a real fire?...that's just wrong on so many different levels!)  Anyway, it turns out it wasn't a drill, which probably means some jerk pulled the fire alarm as a joke.

I think North Texas needs to implement the same fine that UNL did for pranksters pulling the fire alarm (I think they had raised it to $2,000)...once UNL raised the fine, the pranksters stopped.

About an hour ago, I was asleep.  If it wasn't for what happened during the last hour, I'd probably still be asleep (so what if I wanted to sleep in until 1pm...that's my problem, not yours).

It all began just before noon when my little sister woke me up asking where the fire extinguisher was.  Fire extinguisher?  No, I wasn't dreaming...she really did need one.  My sister was grilling something on our cooktop and it had caught on fire.  I told her I didn't think we had one (or if we did, my parents stuck it somewhere no one would think to look).  Grace calls my father, he tells her where he thinks it is, she doesn't find it, and then she finally decides to call the fire department.  (Geesh, that would have been the first thing I would have done if I couldn't find the fire extinguisher.)

I rush to put some clothes on while my sister makes the call (after the incident where I had to move my car a few weeks ago, I am not going outside in my PJs again if I can absolutely avoid it).  We then rush to get our rabbit and four cats outside.  Grace was holding Sophie until the first truck showed up, at which point the cat decided to run and hide.

The best part about this whole ordeal is how many vehicles showed up...first there was just one normal fire truck.  A few moments later, the ladder truck shows up.  Then a third fire truck, the fire chief's SUV, and a police car show up.  All this for a small fire on a Jenn-Air grill that had been contained under a large metal cookie sheet that the first truck put out in a few seconds.  I suppose the local fire department must have been incredibly bored...there's no other explanation for that many fire trucks.

Needless to say, it's been a pretty exciting morning (sorry, afternoon).  I'm definitely awake now.  The question is, what am I going to eat now that the grill caught on fire and our microwave starts arcing for no apparent reason?  I think I'll just eat out for lunch instead.