I'm not sure I'm totally ready to be doing this, but here goes anyway.
Sunday evening around 7:00 the little kids were playing in the playroom with their toys and Maggie had gone into our room to relax on our bed and read a book. I decided to grab my new book and see how much I could get read before someone was at my feet needing something. Glenn had come out of the room after helping Maggie get situated and sat down on the couch to watch some TV.
After he sat down he commented on some smoke coming up from the balcony below ours and how they must not know how to barbecue. After another comment or two I got up to see since my view was blocked by our cabinet sitting next to my chair. By that time the smoke was black and we realized it was not coming from a barbecue.
We both looked over the balcony to see what was happening and we could see a small patch of flames in the corner of her balcony. At this point it could have been put out with a fire extinguisher so Glenn grabbed ours and made his way downstairs. I, as calmly as I could, scooped up Wyatt and ushered Maggie and Zoe out the door. I fished my phone out of my purse and slipped my flip flops on and we got out of our apartment. By the time the kids and I were out to the sidewalk the flames were huge and taking over our apartment. In a few moments time it went from a small flicker of a candle to totally engulfing both our apartment and the one below. The heat was so unbelievably intense that we had to make our way across the parking lot to the grass near another building. In the seconds we had while getting to safety I made the call to 9-1-1.
It was not very many minutes before we could hear the sirens and knew that help was on it's way.
The kids were understandably upset and we could not get them calmed down so when a neighbor and ward member up the hill called to see what was happening I asked if she could come down and take the kids to her house so they could be away from the scene. She came quickly and picked us up. I stayed with them until I knew they were alright and playing with their daughter. During the short time I was there she was receiving phone calls from other ward members asking what we needed and volunteering clothes and diapers for us. My stomach was taking the brunt of my stress so after a few antacid pills and some water I decided I could go back down and see what was happening and how Glenn was doing. He had not had the chance to grab his phone so I had no way of talking with him other than the sporadic use of another friends phone.
I started walking back down the hill and just about the time I was able to see our apartment between the other buildings my phone rang with my Mom on the other end. I could no longer contain my frustration and total fear so the tears started and my heart fell as I stood stunned by the blackness that used to be our home. Mom informed me that they were coming up and they were leaving right away.
I tried to get myself under control so I could maneuver through the maze of firetruck, firefighters, other tenants and hoses. I made a complete circle around the complex before I was able to find Glenn. They were still working on putting out hot spots and it was still over an hour before they were convinced it was all out and safe to leave. It was very difficult for us to have to walk away without even knowing if any of our belongings would be able to be saved.
The apartment owners paid for us to stay at a hotel for 3 days so we picked up the kids, and the clothes neighbors had brought over for them, and headed to Wal Mart to get jammies, toothbrushes and a few other items. Needless to say we did not get much sleep. Zoe and Wyatt were able to crash, but the rest of us had a very difficult time relaxing and closing our eyes.
I will put up pictures in a separate post.
