After a 7 month stint at 47[D] Crystal Brook Way I moved out to a new apartment in Marlborough; 12 Royal Crest Dr.
I had to move out as the owner at Crystal Brook Way was expecting his parents from India for the next couple of months. Hence on 25th April 2009 I packed my bags after returning from office on that Friday and called Rajat to come pick me up as he was already living in Royal Crest. On reaching my new home I just dumped everything in my room and had some food and went to bed a little early at about 10PM as I was too tiered after all the packing and moving. My other roomie had some plans for the week-end so he left with his friend.
Wake Up call!!
The morning I woke up to a loud knocking sound on our door.At first I was very angry/irritated as to who the f***k is this guy knocking so loud so early on a Saturday morning.As I was walking towards the door I was slowly getting my senses back and realized there was some kind of alarm that was going on. I was surprised to see a Big Fat Fireman when peeped through the doors peep hole. He said " Sir, You have get out of the apartment right now, there has been a fire in the building". With out fully realizing what he was saying I instinctively grabbed my cell phone and keys and rushed out. On my way out I could see black smoke coming out of the basement but no flames though.
Thank God for the Smoke Alarm
Upon reaching to the front of my building I saw two fire trucks , 3/4 police cars and all the residents of my apt standing on the road[The pics posted above are real life pics, taken with my cell phone camera]. I went to a person and asked How did the fire start? he said " I don't know there was some smoke in the basement which triggered the smoke alarm and notified the fire dept." I used get annoyed with the smoke alarms complaining [read going off] for every little speck of smoke coming out of the kitchen like when I made a "chapati" bit too crispy in the morning while making lunch or giving a "KADAK tadka" to the Daal etc. OK, I agree is was more than a speck of smoke but I still thought it to be a nuisance rather than a life saver as it turned out to be for the residents of 12 Royal Crest Dr on that fateful day. All the desis staying in my building were all praise for the smoke alarm, me included.
The Culprit.
After 2 cold hours outside the fire officers allowed us into the building after they cleared up all the smoke and put out the fire source. When I re-entered i went directly to the basement to see what had caused the fire. It was the dryer in the basement. Seems like some one was trying to save one buck on dry cleaning and had put in woolens inside the dryer in spite of the printed caution[in bold RED fonts] not to do so.Due to the hot air the woolen cloths melted and jammed the dryer and that caused the machine to spark /fume and hence the smoke and fire. And from the half burnt cloths lying there ; it was anybody's guess that fool was a DESI.
Lesson learned : "Don't dry your woolens against the caution in the basement dryer unless you want to burn the house down."