Close Call

Saturday morning, rather than wake up natrually as I had planned, I was awoken by the sound of WHOOT! WHOOT! WHOOT!

These are the fire safety alarms in Haror Steps, informing us to get out. The alarm stopped after a bit, so I puled the comforter over my head and went back to sleep.

Over the next half hour, the alarm returned several times, but subsided after a few whoots.

I woke up and found Hugo similarly disturbed. Hugo reported that he had called the concierge, and the word was that there was no fire, no need to evacuate, but there had been a fire sprinkler set off accidentally, which summons the fire department.

I decided to spend the morning watching bonus clips of Beauty and the Geek and reading the New York Times online. My plan was thwarted, however, when the entire building lost power.

With the power out, there is really not much to do at home. Hugo and I decided to venture out into the city to find some breakfast and also track down some medicine.

Once we got into our own hallway, we found many residents stirring, including our neighbors. A short trip down the hall toward the elevaters uncovered the sound of rushing water. Opening the satirwell door to investigate, we found water streaming down the stairs from above. The apartment next to the stariwell had water seeping out from under the door.

Hugo and I decided it was a good time to GET OUT whether we were ordered to or not. When we walked outside, we found the scene from the picture above.

With the thin confidence that the flooding was happening in a separtate vertical column of units than our own (the apartments on my side of the building actually have nothing above them), Hugo and I proceeded to Walgreens, and then had a delightful breakfast at The Crumpet Shoppe in Pike Place.

Later, we ventured up to Stephen’s in Greenlake to hang out and escape boredom. Up there, we met up with friends and played some Bocce in the park. Even later, I retrieved Jennifer from Cap Hill and we re-met up with Hugo and Stephen to dine at Salvatore Restaurante Italiano in the U-District. That was good. We ended the day by watching Dreamgirls at Pacific Place.

Returning to apartment after midinght, we found a moist hallway, no electricity, but no damage to our unit. A letter under the door from the management explained what had happened.

Early Saturday morning, a sprinkler head was accidentally damaged by a resident on the 21st Floor. This caused flooding in that area, and below it. The water entered an electrical closet on the 6th floor, resulting in the catastrophic failure of the electrical system in the entire building.

We’re safe now, and the worst of the damage for us is melted ice cream.

2 Responses

  • Mom

    Just another day at the Steps!
    Who needs medicine?
    Was Dreamgirls good?
    I just watched “Ray”-excellent

  • Hugo had an upset stomach, so we were looking for some medicine for him.

    Dreamgirls was pretty good. The singing was great. We were a little disappointed at how much they made it a “musical”… how they used songs in lieu of dialog in many scenes. The movie could have been 30 minutes shorter.

Comments are closed.