melchar

the tl;dr version = there was a garage fire near ours, but we're okay.

Longer version = Spent time outdoors in 38 degree [F] weather from 4am till almost 6am on Tuesday morning because of a structure fire. Our condo is the upper, end unit of a building on the west side. The north side faces closed detached garages with roughly a 20 foot gap between the buildings. Under our building are also garages - [3] 2-car garage sized & [2] 1-car garage size.

These garages open to the north & across from them is the single long row of detached garages in a single floor building & are also [3] 2-car garage sized & [2] 1-car garage size. At the far east side of the 1-story garage area is where the dumpsters are. Sometime very early Tuesday either the furthest east of the 2-car garages in the single floor garage building or one of the dumpsters behind that garage caught on fire.

Just before 4am I heard sirens & there was a pounding on our door as the local police went door-to-door waking folk up & having everyone to leave our building. I woke my sweetie up - myself being awake & online - & grabbed my purse & a blanket. We went outside & had to stay outside until the fire was knocked down.

Showing how sudden stress works, I was not wearing shoes & forgot to grab my glasses. [Being near-sighted I can work on the computer without them just fine & am only blind beyond about 5 foot.] All in all we were fortunate. The dumpster area is a loss, as are the [3] 2-car garages in that 1-story garage building. The 1-car garage NEXT to that seems to be okay & that's where our car is. When we are allowed**, we'll be able to learn if it sustained harm.

Of our condo building - the condo across from the fire had one of their windows crack, but that appears to be the only damage our building took. So NOT an experience I hope to repeat anytime soon. It was quite cold outside.

Time spent today was finding that fire & police investigators determined there was no crime involved in the fire, so the investigation is done. [**We were asked to not open or enter our garage until the investigation was over.] PG&E has said power will not be returned to the building until the Homeowner's group finishes repair. Homeowner's group did start tearing down the dumpster area. By this point it was the afternoon & a light rain was falling.

So Thursday will be when we pull the emergency manual use-once cord to open the electric garage door when the power is out, so we can assess our car's condition. Crossing fingers that everything is well - which is probable since the 2-car garage next to us, with its ruined door, did not sustain fire damage - except by proxy, since the firefighters had to tear its door off to get water in there to dowse the fire in the garage beside it.