By now, several of you have seen the news of a huge fire in an
under-construction shopping center in San Jose, CA. So you probably also know
that embers were blown over I-280 into an apartment complex. Well, I live in
that apartment complex.
Yesterday was also my first day at a new job (it's a temporary assignment, but
I'm glad to just be working again). I heard several people talking about the
big fire at Santana Row, and I commented that "I hope it stays on its side of
the freeway, because I live nearby there."
At 4:15 I got a call from my wife saying traffic would be nasty getting home
because of the Santana Row fire. Fifteen minutes later, I got a call from her
daughter. She told me she had seen TV footage of a building in our apartment
complex with its roof on fire. I managed to finish my day there, but I
immediately went home.
It took me almost an hour to get back to my apartment, which is only four
miles from work. Every street leading there was blocked off. I had to park
my car at a shopping center half a mile away and walk in. My wife had called
and told me she was standing in the driveway leading to our complex. She said
the landlord had told her there were some hot spots on the roof of the
building where our apartment is located, but that it was structurally sound.
However, nobody would be going back in until at least midnight.
This afternoon, during my lunch break I went back to our apartment. They were
allowing people back in, but they required everyone to check in at the gate
and then escorted people to their apartments (or whatever remained of them).
My entire apartment reeks of smoke. The door now has a hole in it from being
kicked open, and there is some water damage in our bedroom, but otherwise
everything in there is okay. I started pulling my autocross trophies off the
wall, but then I remembered that our apartment was still livable and there was
really no sense in taking anything major from the apartment. So I wound up
just grabbing a couple changes of clothing and heading back to work.
Bottom line is, even though all our stuff smells like smoke, we still have all
our stuff. Some of our neighbors were not so lucky; I saw a guy carrying a
leather jacket on a hanger. He said it was the only thing in his apartment
that survived the fire.
Maria and I are staying with her daughter for the next couple of nights.
We'll be okay.
Later,
Scot
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