It's just another day in paradise...for you and me...
Good heavens, I don't even know how to start this post. How many terrifying adventures can one kid have in their first year of college? I really want to know, is it more than three? I am ready for Lorien to have some regular adventures now. I think God is sending these trials to her doorstep because she won't leave her apartment to have save adventures on her own. I don't know...here is the story.
Wednesday morning, January 29th, I dropped Colter and Adell off at school and pulled around to park the van. Adell's class was going to sign the pledge of allegiance in sign language at flag salute that morning. I told her I would be there to watch and silently cheer her on. As I was getting out of the van Lorien called me, crying. Her apartment building was on fire!
My first thoughts were: you have to be kidding? Is this a joke? Those were millisecond thoughts as I listened to her describe what she could see. Black smoke was billowing up over her windows and when she looked out and down the apartment several floors below her was on fire with gigantic flames flying out the windows and balcony. What the what! I spent 15 terrifying minutes trying to get her to calm down, put on pants, and leave her apartment. I was not successful. By the time she got to her door with her stuff the hallway had filled with smoke and she was trapped.
You bet all the nightmare scenarios of 9/11 and other disasters were filling my head. She watched and relayed the info to me as she watched a man climb out of the apartment window below her (6 floors below) and cling to the side of the building. There were three miracles during this horrible adventure. The first was the LA fire department. Normal response time to a 911 fire call in the LA area is around 10 minutes. The fire department had been putting out another fire just a few blocks away when the call came in. They were seconds away and got there in time to pull the ladder trucks up to the building (over curbs, stairs, and grass) to get up to the man on the side of the building and save his life! It was an absolute miracle.
I drove home where Will was about to leave for work. Lorien and I were still on the phone and he wisely told her to call 911 herself. 911 dispatched her into the fire crew on the ground. They took her location information and told her to shelter in place with a wet towel coving the cracks of the door. In this part of the phone call the second miracle was revealed. Lorien usually stays up until about 2 am and sleeps until 11 am. At 7:50 am she was woken from a sound sleep and unable to get back to sleep. She was annoyed and restless. Tossing to find her eyemask so she could get back to sleep she noticed the black smoke shooting over her windows. She got up and discovered the fire. She could have slept through the whole thing...I realized at 7:50 am, I was saying my morning prayers. I was just about done and I remembered Lorien. She was supposed to be starting her work training at Chipotle today. I asked God to bless her to be safe and got on my way. I know God woke her up to see the smoke because of my prayer. It is a miracle and I am so grateful.
Will and I talked with Lorien for another 30 minutes or so. We heard one set of firemen come into her apartment and check on her. She still needed to shelter in place. She decided she was ok and would get off the phone with us. Will and I dressed and left for a workout we had scheduled together at 10:15 am. At the start of the workout, I was distracted and felt full of lead. I hit my stride about a third of the way through and was grateful for the time to get my endorphins flowing and feeling better. On the drive home from the workout, I told Will if he could come up with a work excuse to go down south for a work trip and check on Lorien in the process, it would be really good for her. He agreed and said he would figure it out.
Once we got home we got another call from Lorien. The fire department had put the fire out in about an hour and she was now being evacuated. I think this is when the emotional trauma of it all hit Lorien. In her hour of waiting she had taken all of her stuff out of her go-bag. Upon evacuation, she picked up a nearly empty bag and left her apartment...in her bedroom slippers? For some reason, the firemen sent her down the stairs nearest her apartment and nearest the fire. She got down to the 6th floor where the fire was and couldn't go any further. The lights were out and the stairs were flooded. She stuck her head out the 6th-floor stair doors and was confronted by firemen. They had to lead her through the burnt carnage to the other stairs! Down she went and out of the building. She was sent to a Chase Bank and then to the rec center in Westwood. She was scared and really upset. Will and I decided we needed to go down that night and comfort her.
We spent about two frantic hours calling in favors from friends and telling the kids the scary news. Lorien's apartment fire was headline news all over the place. We were able to pull up news footage and show the kids what Lorien was facing. Adell was really torn up. I had missed her sign language act and her band concert was that night...we would miss that too. We told her we'd make it up to her with a special date night when we got back. She also agreed it seemed like Lorien needed our help more than Adell needed us at her band concert. What a sweet kid.
Will was able to send Lorien via Uber to a hotel near the airport where we met her. We had a nice dinner and a smoke-free sleep in a clean hotel.
Wyatt's wrestling team also had the battle for the axe while we were gone. Moreover, San Ramon Valley High School won the axe for the second year in a row! Woot-woot...but we missed it.
The next morning, Lorien's apartment was front-page news. A burning apartment makes for great headline photos. We tried to figure out what was going on and when Lorien could get back into her apartment. We weren't getting a lot of information. We took her to see a movie and moved her into a hotel closer to her apartment where some of the other residents were being sent. We got her stocked up with Diet Coke, a clean Tshirt, Advil, some snacks, and bathroom stuff she forgot in her evacuation. Oh, and I got her some shoes!
We had to leave Lorien on her own and get back to the other kids. Both Will and I felt good that we had given her some attention and got her set up in comfort while she waited to hear when she could get back into her apartment. Thankfully, her roommates were also transferred to her hotel and she ended up close to them which was a comfort. By the time we got home, Lorien had been told she could go back into her apartment the next day. The third miracle was the wind. The wind had been really whipping to the south, which helped in containing the fire and keeping it from spreading up into the apartments above. The fire was on the 6th floor, that unit and the one directly above were burned. Then the floors below were flooded. They closed the floors from 1-10 and let everyone else back in. She was lucky to be on floor 13...lucky 13...I knew we picked right.
A day later, Lorien seems ok. Still a little shaken up but looking forward to starting work and getting her regular life back. I told her it is time for some regular college adventures like cutting class to go to the beach. Easy adventures that don't involve fire. You might remember there was a hill fire in her neighborhood in October. She lives an exciting life.
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