Fire Safety Doesn't Always Involve Flames

The worst Monday is the kind of Monday that makes you feel like you've gone through a entire stressful week in less than 24 hours. When it's all over, you sit down and realize that tomorrow is Tuesday. You might just have to do it all over again in the morning. That is the life that I lead.

The day started off like any other: with a bowl of Raisin Bran and early morning writing session as the Today show provided background noise. After I got ready for the day, my roommate "Serena" invited me on a quick afternoon Target trip, which was only moderately successful but completely enjoyable. 

It was when we returned from this adventure that everything started to fall apart.

As soon as we pulled up to the building, we heard the fire alarm and saw half of the apartment's residents sitting on the grass a few yards away. It was said that the second floor resident assistant's roommate was just sitting in his room, minding his own business, when suddenly the sprinkler system in his room just went off. And didn't stop. Within moments, the rooms next to and underneath that "accident" were flooded. 

All this started happening around 1:10. I had class at 1:40, my stuff was in my room and I was trapped outside. As you can imagine, I didn't make it. 

Angry and hungry, Serena and I left campus and grabbed a nice lunch at a nearby healthy deli/cafe hoping that it would all be sorted by the time we got back. Of course, we returned to small scene of chaos. Carpet cleaning services were on duty and people were checking the electrical system as we stepped through the door. The power was off. We were told that we needed to grab whatever we might need for the next few hours, leave the building and wait for an update. But there would be a chance that it wouldn't be sorted out by nightfall. In that case, they would provide "alternative accommodations".

Refusing to go wherever our already over-crowded residence system wanted to place us, Serena suggested that we travel to her grandparents house if all else failed us. After getting what we needed for at least the next 24 hours out of our rooms, we parted ways. I went to my second afternoon class. 

An email update came about an hour later that explained that our apartment building would be should down for 24-48 hours. Cots would be set up in the gym and each resident would receive free cafeteria meals until the building is reopened. We simply left campus and decided to just hope for normalcy in the morning.

Oh, yeah...about that boy just sitting in his room when the sprinkler went haywire? Of course it didn't just go off on its own. Apparently, he hung stuff on it and broke the release mechanism. So in the end, people's belongings were destroyed and everyone was misplaced because some boy wanted to decorate his room. Fantastic.

I am blessed though. It could have been much worse..Our unit was completely dry. 

The most ironic part of it all was that we were scheduled to have a meeting on fire safety tomorrow...