What Precipitated the PTP

My father used to organize fire drills when we were young. He installed metal rope ladders in all the upstairs bedrooms, either bolted into the floor or with hooks to attach to the window sill, and when it was time for the drill, which he announced by banging a wooden spoon on one of Mom's copper bottomed pans, we had to open the window, throw the ladder out, then climb down to the sidewalk. We never had a fire on Q Street so all that training was for naught ... it didn't even help when my condo burned down last August because I didn't know there was a fire. I thought a pipe had burst when I saw water pouring through the light fixture in my kitchen ceiling in the middle of the night ... well, 2 am actually ... so I grabbed my keys and my phone, threw on my bathroom, and went outside to turn off the water in the basement. That's when I saw the flames in the kitchen window above mine. If I'd known it was a fire I'd have grabbed my pants too.

The fire began in the kitchen of the unit above mine and the fire engines arrived less than 3 minutes after I called 911.

I figured I might as well keep myself busy as the firefighters went about their business, so I filed an insurance claim from my phone.

You can see the water still pouring through the ceiling after 4+ hours of fire hoses doing their work

I've had some of these books since I was a child.

My desk took a direct hit when the ceiling fell in

I'm not sure what I found so amusing later that morning ... maybe I was just glad that a neighbor had loaned me a pair of sweatpants since my white bathrobe was getting progressively dirtier from the smoke and roof detritus blowing around. At least my SWAT hat withstood the soot

One must forge on however, so I donned my red rubber boots and mask and waded into the smoky, smelly, moldy remains to rescue some essentials

The firefighters had to clear a path through the upstairs neighbor's cluttered back hallway to get into his unit, so they tossed his crap into my bedroom, which is why there's an ironing board and a freezer door on top of my bed.

Insurance valued this "pile of blue yarn balls" at $187.04

Finally, after much delay, they brought in a dumpster and ...

the walls come a tumbling down!

Eventually the new walls began to rise ... and that brings us up to the middle of March.