Fire on the Mountain

At 2:47 this morning I woke up to a ringing sound I couldn't identify. It took me a few seconds to realize that the fire alarm was going off. At about that time, I also heard the stampede of neighbors from upper floors as they were evacuating the building. I grabbed my shoes, a jacket, my wallet, keys, and cell phone and joined the fray in time to hear somebody yell "the fire's in the lobby!"

We evacuated through the rear entrance and three people had called 911 by the time we got outside. There's a fire station across the street, and by the time the SFFD got there two tenants had extinguished the fire with a hose and a fire extinguisher.

I got a good look at the flames before they were extinguished (and am waiting on photos from my neighbor's iPhone), and I really don't believe a fire can spontaneously start on a plastic door mat on a wet night. This was not an accident. You can't see the floor mat in this photo, but that was obviously where the fire started, with the flames reaching up the door. Today the whole entry way is sooty and burned, but nothing inside was damaged. We were all very lucky.

I ran into the landlord this morning. He didn't hear his phone ring last night, and only got several tenant messages at 9 am. I have some problems with that, but I guess I'm not too surprised. He also said the fire seems to have been started by lighter fluid. This is now, according to him, an arson investigation.

I am incredibly thankful that this fire did not cause any serious injury or damage. I can live with a few days of smoke-related allergies. But as we spent an hour standing in front of the building this morning, more than one tenant questioned the nature of this fire. We wonder who's mad at the landlord.

Arson and a burglary in two years. I'm going to two apartment open houses in the next two days.