I've just had the worst 18 hours you guys could ever imagine, and some advice I'll share with you that could save not only your life, the health and well being of your loved ones, but all your equipment as well.

So I'm at work, and I get a call from a old co-worker. She calls me to ask if I live in a certain apartment complex, and I say I do, and she asks what building, and I say "Building A", and she goes "I don't know how to tell you this, but your apartment is on fire!!". Boom! I'm in panic mode. Is my roomie okay? My cat? My stuff? I'm freaking out, and trying franticly to reach my roomie (who was safe, but forgot to bring her cell with). I call my supervisor, who said he'd come over right away and relieve me. By the time he arrived, the transportation of our local tram was going to be starting, so the timing was perfect. I get home, and there's news crews everywhere, police blocking off the street, and 4 fire trucks hosing our building down.

Here's the amazing thing. Our side of the building was UNTOUCHED! No smoke, water, or fire damage AT ALL! Which meant, that my stuff, and our cats were fine. We even assumed after the fire department put out the fire we could even go back and live in our unit. Unfortunately, that was not the case. I find my roomie (still in her jammies), and my apartment manager trying to console 18 displaced families, who weren't as lucky. The fire gutted the right side of the top unit, spread left and then jumped over the fire wall to scorch the top middle apartments, but there were no deaths, and only a minor injury of a guy who had to jump out 3 stories. I felt bad for all of them, because there was nothing left of the top units, and the middle would have had some damage, and the bottom units were flooded (due to the fire crew still putting out the blaze). You don't know how helpless you'll feel as you wait, watch, and wonder as the fire crew does their job of putting out the fire.

The next few hours were just a blur, but they let my roomie go inside to get properly dressed. I found my cat, who seemed to be okay, and not concerned in the slightest. My roomie's cat was hiding, which was fine. I do recall, the Red Cross was there to help everybody out, get us water, coffee, snacks, and blankets for all the neighbors who just left with their pj's on. Yesterday, I was making plans of building my dream recording studio, and now, I wasn't sure where we were going.

Finally, the fire is out, and the fire trucks are emptying all the fire hozes, and some firemen are doing final inspections to make sure the fire is out. All of us can still only watch, and wait. For the rest of the people in the complex, they had nothing but the clothes on their backs. For us, we still have all our stuff, but can we go back in the building? Negative. The sheriff, and Fire Marshall still have to see how safe it is, so all we can do is keep waiting. We were getting hungry by this point, so we decide to get her car (which suffered no damage), and go to Denny's for breakfast, while we ponder what we'll do when we return. We get back, and still no go on going inside. We tell them we just want to grab some things and check up on our cats, and they tell us they found 1 cat, and it had food and water, and would be fine, but they still wouldn't let us in.

When it was down to the last fire truck who were emptying their fire hoses, the Red Cross had talked to us, and offered us a shelter in a Gymnasium, but my roomie refused, and said we'd get a hotel instead. My roomie's dad sent us $2000 to help us stay afloat, and we get a hotel (which we're now staying in for the next 2 days). This all happens on my day off I forgot to mention, so I don't have to be at work for at least 48 hrs. So far, we're trying to see where we'll go, and if we'll have to pay more/less rent, possibly get a 1 bedroom (but we prefer 2 for obvious reasons), yadda yadda. They fire crews let us grab some belongings, and all I took was my laptop, a change of clothes, my favorite pillow, and my towells. Left my keyboard, Akai S20, Xbox/Ps3, HDTV, and our cats all my stuff behind. (The complex got it fenced off,and hired private security, so our stuff is safe).

Now, here's where reality has sunk in. 1. None of us in the burned building had renter's insurance. Everybody could have gotten free hotels if we had. (I made the mistake of cancelling mine just a few weeks ago, assuming I wouldn't need it). I feel like a complete fool for doing that, so that will be the first thing we do when we get a new place to live.

2. You, and your loved ones are more important than any possesion you own. Stuff can always be replaced, but your family can't. So all you can do is stay strong, support eachother, and worry about your possesions later.

3. Don't blame yourself(or anybody else). It won't help. Life happens. You hear in the news all the time about earthquakes, floods, tornados, hurricanes, etc. Life happens, and sometimes serves you a disaster. You just have to face it, and not let it bring you down. Most the time, it doesn't affect us, it's somebody else's problem. Then it happens to you, and you get humble real quick.

4. Get home/life/renter's insurance. I know, same as 1, but all those other families I mentioned didn't have a place to go, or anybody coming to hook them up with a new place to live, money to replace what was lost, and they've probably got squat right about now. My roomie's dad gave us $2000, but even if he didn't give us a penny, we easily could have been in all their boat.

What happens next? Wish I knew. All I do know is, my dream studio is going to probably now be 2-4 months off schedule. Probably every paycheck I get for the next 6 weeks I won't see much of. But what matters is, we got lucky. I don't know how or why, but we really did get lucky. Maybe we'll see a huge paycheck and I can buy all the stuff I was planning to, or maybe my life will be a dark cloud or tunnel that eventually will clear up into something brighter. I'll keep you all updated, and post pics my roomie took.

I know most of you love your SP's, MPC's, every record, cd, dvd you own, but if you ever lost it all in the blink of an eye, don't give up on your dreams. They keep us sane. They push us into what we want to be. If I just say "F*ck it, I'm done", then I've let life screw me sideways without the K-Y, and I sink further into depression, which I refuse to do, and trust me, no matter how bleak things seem, they could just as easily be alot worse. Calculate all your valuables, keep receipts of equipment you bought. Might come in handy if you ever had to prove to a agent how much you invested, and what it's going to take to replace or fix. Check your wiring, make sure you have a decent fire/smoke alarm, and none of your power cables are exposed or damaged. Easier said than done, but should be possible.

And that's it really. Keep me in your prayers. We could use em'.

Damn dude...

Closest I got to that scenario...two different times...

When I was 12, the apartment building next to mine got struck by lightning and blew out the corner of the building.

Not this Christmas, but the last one, on Christmas day, the apartment next time mine literally blew up. It was so deep and rumbling, it woke me up. I was pretty scared too, I thought maybe it blew up because of gasline or something, so I jet out of my place until the fire trucks got there and even then, I was a tad scared to go back inside.

But yeah, man, glad to know you and your stuff and friends and all that are okay.

Life does throw curve balls (life does the banana kick for you non americans) all you can do is your best to keep on going.

Heavy! Best of luck, Headphones. Hope the authorities let you get back home sooner rather than later.

Def gonna update my insurance now. Gotta do the boring, responsible stuff more often.

But 'banana kick'? Had to search that one, think I just failed at my own nationality. Thanks HS!

wow..

Good to know your all safe and you don't have to replace anything man. That would be a scary situation for sure. This has made me now think about looking into some boring responsible stuff/ insurance coverage myself. I thought that was really well wrote also, I assume your a blogger or writer?

Not really, but sometimes I got a big mouth, and with nothing but time on my hands, and my mind rambling, I guess I just had to tell somebody what I just went through.

Here's some picks...

Scary shit. Glad that u r safe. Hope everything works out for the best. Im sure it will.

Holy fuck man. Glad everyone's ok!

yeah hope everything goes well!

All the best to you and yours, brother. My heart sank into my stomach reading this.