Fire in the hole!

I'm not really sure how to start this post. I was really busy in Michigan catching up on removing 6+"s of ice from my porch driveway, moving stuff over to the new place, picking up/dropping off Chili, cleaning my place, blah blah blah. Combine this with the temperature being in the teens, you could say I was more than ready to come down to Florida...

So after arriving yesterday afternoon, I dropped off my bags and went over to the pool to soak a little sun and go for a swim. I then went back to my place to grab my bike as I had the urge to go for a short ride. I was gone for around 25 minutes.

When I came back, I went into my place and it was all black. I then noticed a heavy smell of smoke and tried to walk in but was overwhelmed immediately. I then ran out to exhale and went around the building to my bedroom window. I looked in and couldn't see a thing, I was totally freaking out at this point... Knowing that I had my medication, camera, computer, ipod, phone, etc. in my backpack which was right by the window and not being able to get the window open, I decided to kick it in to try and salvage what I could. Hindsight and the subsequent lecture by the fire department chief tells me this could have been a bad idea. Thankfully the fire that was started snuffed itself out quickly (room ran out of O2) because the windows were closed and I closed the door to my room when I left. I got a new mattress before I left last time and the old one was leaning against the wall near where I keep my bike. When I took my bike out, the mattress must have been partially leaning on it and without knowing, it must have fell over onto a lamp I also keep in the corner. The blaze was brief but fierce...



This is the corner where the fire happened. I had a pretty cool Hector Salas reproduction over my bed that I found at Faith Farm which is now only and ashen outline. The pile of ashes are from the old mattress. The new mattress, which I only had a chance to sleep on once, was made of memory foam and remarkably fire resistant. It was only slightly melted (but still had to be thrown away like most of the other stuff in the room, i.e. tv, furniture, bedding, luggage, etc.). I did manage to salvage most of my clothes/shoes and my golf clubs and classical guitar are charred but still usable.


You could see how hot the fire got by the remainder of the plastic shower curtains as they melted up. The tub was around 18-20 feet away from the fire...

I guess you could say this is a bummer...

However, of course, it could have been much worse. If I had my door open, the fire would have kept growing and probably burnt the rest of the place down and most likely the other 3 units in my building.

I was planning on moving out of this place and into another so I guess this just sped up the process...

It's crazy how powerful the smell of the smoke is (probably from plastic burning) and how permeating it is. I'll probably have to throw more stuff away but doing my best to salvage what I can.

Unfortunately, I didn't have any insurance, big ugh...

It was nice though when one of my neighbors came over with the number to the local Red Cross office and within a couple of hours of my phone call, two volunteers were at my place. They were able to get me a hotel for three nights and gave me a little money for some food and essentials.

Never thought I'd be the recipient of help from the Red Cross. What an awesome operation they are and would think a great organization to donate to...

Anyway, that's my most recent drama! You know I couldn't go more than a couple weeks without some major catastrophe, ha!

Amazing how you can keep things like this in perspective and even marginalize it compared to the all the cancer stuff. I'm sure prior to cancer I would be totally depressed about all of this but truthfully now, the only thing I am is tired. I'm going to try and get a nice sleep here at the Quality Inn in Boca and get ready to tackle tomorrow.

I think I'll go hit some golf balls with my ashy clubs or take a bike ride down to the beach.

Life goes on... ;)