Was the sky really falling? The 3am Dilemma

So, I was having one of those dreams... that you just know are about to turn bad, a borderline nightmare per se. It was at the point it was escalating, where I wished that A. I had taken those self-defense classes I'd always been meaning to take and B. that I had my phone so that I could call 911 for help. But then I awoke suddenly in cold sweat. I opened my eyes, looked at the time in hopes it was almost morning, but it turns out I hadn't been sleeping that long.

My room was dark and the air felt unusually thick. It smelled a mix of cooking and burning rubber or metal, you know the kind of smell when you maybe leave a pot on the stove too long. Still lying in bed, I looked out the window and noticed a slight mist modifying the view. Puzzled, I sat up and turned on the light. My room, was filled with smoke. I immediately remembered the advice I'd received from my brother, a firefighter, to never sit up if you smell smoke. I guess I failed that test.

Anyway the smoke in the room was translucent; the type of smoke we've all experienced after a burned piece of toast fills our house. It wasn't an alarming amount, but enough that at 3am in the morning it was difficult to just brush off as someone elses cooking. So I got up, and to a surprise my entire apartment was filled with a mist of smoke. I thought, hmm, it's odd my fire alarm didn't go off. I went to check it, and noticed that it was not snapped on tightly. It looked as though the last tenant had probably removed the cover slightly, like many of us do, when we have a little cooking slip up. I wasn't pleased to find this.

I proceeded to check the rest of my apartment. Maybe I left a candle on? Maybe my hair straightener? Maybe I really screwed up and one of the stove elements was on? But no, nothing. I went back to my room, and thought, man I sure hope this isn't a fire somewhere else in the building as I don't have insurance. Like I was kicking myself in my dream for not having self-defense training, I was kicking myself for not having house insurance and up-to-date fire training. An interesting parallel.

It was at this point, that I threw on some pants and a jumper and decided to check the rest of the house. Turns out there was a thin mist of smoke throughout the whole house. Certain that this situation was probably nothing and that someone was probably just cooking, I went outside to see if any lights were on in the other apartments. All lights were off. It didn't look like someone was cooking.

Now, I wasn't sure what to do. When you're awake and alone, isolated from a world that is asleep, what do you do? You can't call a friend or family member.. well, more so, you don't want to wake them up over something that you are still convinced is probably too trivial to alarm them about. But given there were no fire alarms going off, the smoke was thin and seemingly not escalating, it seemed silly to call 911. It's seems like no big deal, so maybe I should just go back to bed? I texted my brother to see if he had any advice, and returned to my apartment, crawled into bed and thought... this is probably nothing.

A few minutes later, after not hearing from my brother, and after running through the "what-ifs" in my head, I decided to call 911 - just for advice. That's all I wanted. I didn't want fire to come, I didn't want to be chicken little in this case and claim a sky was falling that seemingly was not. I just wanted to see if there was anything I should do or look out for.

It's funny calling 911, it's kind of one of those things... that you never think you'll have to do, or one of those things you dread having to do. And there's definitely a mystery around it - almost as if the second you dial those numbers big things are about to happen. There is also a severity around it, like its the last resort, and if you call you know you're in an emergency. The scope of reasons why you should or can acceptably call is also hard to define. Really, you just don't really know what to expect the second you dial those numbers.

It was on the first ring that I received an answer. "Good evening, is this a fire, police, or ambulance call?" he said. "Fire" I responded. He connected me through. It was on the second ring a man picked up. I explained I was calling for advice, that I didn't know if this was a call worthy of 911, and explained the situation. He asked if it could be someone cooking, and I said from what I investigated it looked as though everyone was asleep. I highlighted there were no fire alarms going off, and it seems incredibly minor. He asked more about the smell, the air, and following my description he asked if I could pull the alarm for the house and get everyone up. Oh dear I thought. I'm going about this with the right intentions, it's probably nothing, but now I'm going to have to involve everyone in what I'm 95% sure is just being over cautious. I questioned the man on the phone and said "is there nothing else I can do first?" And he became insistent with me. "There is smoke in your house, that cannot be explained, it could be something starting. You have to get out and everyone else out of the house now." So, I agreed, thanked him gracefully and hung up.

Have you ever asked yourself if you could only take one thing with you, what would you take? I had that moment for a second, being in school and my life being my academic memory, I grabbed my laptop. A sad state of affairs huh.

Anyway, I'd had enough time to put on some more clothes and was just grabbing my jacket to go, when I heard the sirens in the distance. Before I could get out my door to awake the other tenants, fire had arrived. I'd say they had a response time of roughly 5 minutes. I was impressed.

Still waking up, I made my way down the stairs to the silhouette illuminated by flashing red lights in the background. I opened the door to be greeted by 2 men towering over me in full fire gear. I explained the situation, and they made their way in to look around. Eavesdropping on their conversation, it seemed as though consensus was that it was a cooking smell... like someone had left something on the stove for too long. They went into each apartment, banging on doors, and exploring the house. More firefighters piled in at this time... there were probably 7 in the house at one point.. two fire trucks outside. They spent probably 20 minutes checking out the building, agreeing with me that the smell wasn't just a food smell but like someone had forgotten about something that could be heating up. Fortunately, I was the only one home... in the upper floors. After knocking on the door to the basement long enough, a man came to the door however. One I'd never seen before, who spoke maybe a few words of english. He was insistent on calling the landlord, and did so before allowing the men to enter his apartment. They seemed a bit agitated. Upon exit of his apartment, the man whom appeared to be in command said that it looks like it was him.. that he'd been cooking, and left something on too long. So, my instincts were right, it was nothing.

It was at this point I said "I'm sorry for bringing you all the way out here for that." I explained I wasn't sure what to do, so I called. I reiterated I explained a minor situation on the phone, and thought it was nothing, but the the person on the phone was insistent that fire come to check it out. The firefighter smiled and said "You did the right thing. You see smoke and you can't tell where it's coming from? You did the right thing." I felt a huge wave of relief. I then asked him, "I guess as much as this is a good ending, your guys probably don't like calls like this eh? They're kind of dead end. You probably like a bit of action, no?" and he responded "ha ha.. well, the young guys maybe a bit. But, I've been around long enough, I like these type of calls." We both smiled, I thanked him again, and we parted ways.

With a clear conscience, and a slight headache from the smell of whatever he was cooking, I was wide awake and wanted to tell SOMEONE about this experience. But, given it was now 4am the blog is the only one I felt comfortable asking to "listen" at this time of the morning. I did really question whether  I should write this post however, mainly because of the ending. The story is such a good build up, and for it to be a false alarm in the end doesn't seem to be exciting enough. That's pretty sad huh. That news is only news if something bad happens. And you have to admit, if the firefighters had gone into the basement and found a small fire starting to happen, that would have been a great story! I could say things like "the universe made me wake up, to save myself and my house mates from a potential deadly fire!" I could have been the heroin! The local community member that "did the right thing and saved lives for it." But sadly (and gratefully) that is not the end to this story.

At least there is the parallel to my dream that makes this story interesting! As mentioned, it's funny I was kicking myself in my dream for not being proactive in learning the life skills I needed at that moment. The regret of not taking self defence classes in the dream, translated very quickly in not taking enough fire safety training in real life. And the desire to call 911 in the dream, came to fruition in real life just minutes after I woke up. Coincidence can make life interesting sometimes.

In many ways, however, this post is not about my story but more about what I took from this experience.

First, I have to say I was really impressed with how quick and professional fire was. Again, I'd barely had time to get dressed and they were here. They were quick, thorough, and patient. Definitely a very positive experience in that sense.

Second, I was overly concerned with the situation being a false alarm and didn't want to inconvenience anyone. Coming out of this, however, I learned it's better to be safe than sorry. My discussion with the fire fighter at the end taught me that it's good to be proactive with these things. If there is question, call. Yes, it was a false alarm after all, but the repercussions of it actually turning out to be a fire made it a risk worth taking. In the future I will call again.

Third, I didn't know what to do. I know a couple things now though. The advice heeded by my brother was a big one - to never roll out of bed if you smell smoke. That one really hit home. After doing a quick google search, it's all over the web, never rise out of bed if you smell smoke, roll out of bed. So the question is why? Because heat and toxic gases rise, sitting up into this smoke can disorient you or cause you to pass out. That's what the internet says. My brother told me about the more dangerous implications the internet doesn't tell you. Apparently sometimes the smoke above you can get so hot sitting up is like sticking your head in an oven. And there are actually instances where firefighters have found just the trunk of the body remaining in some bedrooms. Disturbing isn't it. Now that is the kind of stuff they should tell you in primary school to make you remember! The other aspect of fire safety that emerged was to touch the doors to see if they're hot. That is one thing I didn't do. I could have checked the temperature of my housemates doors to see if there was heat coming from any of their apartments. As for other fire safety tips, I did a quick google search and here's a link to one that seems fairly comprehensive. I'll definitely read this in the morning.

Fourth, I think fire safety training should be pushed more often. In frustration I couldn't remember much about what to do, I did a quick google search. The results seem to show that a lot of the training is either self-directed or geared towards children. This is a problem I think. Although we are a society of "life-long learners" there is so much information competing for our attention all the time, learning about fire prevention is one of the things that easily gets placed on the back burner. No pun intended. And yes, it's good to teach it to children, but really, for those old enough to remember Knight Rider, how much do you really remember about your formative years? If that's the only training we're forced to participate in, no wonder it's difficult to remember. Really, like we have fire drills at work or at school, we should get trained just as frequently on fire prevention. Why not dovetail quick 10 minute refresher training on fire drills each time we have one? While people are left to wait idly outside their buildings during fire drills, as administrators, peers, floor wardens, union reps, workplace safety representatives, or whomever? Fire departments could even even send an extra fire fighter? Why don't we capitalize on these captive audiences when we have the chance, and do fire awareness training during these times?  It doesn't seem like the worst idea!

In summary, it's funny how it took a close call like this for me to take fire safety more seriously and make a change. Often times we're not fortunate enough, as I was, to have close calls like this and these situations end up being real. And with profound consequences. Thus, I hope that my story will make you think: what would I have done in this situation? and what would I have wished I'd had done prior to prepare myself for this situation? Then, do these things. Sometimes, it's ok to be the chicken little in your story, and often times the sky isn't falling... but on the off chance it does, you'll be glad you took the steps to protect yourself and others.