The apartment building directly next to mine went up in flames this afternoon. I got a phone call from Anna at work sometime around 5:40 PM. She informed me that if I saw a story about the Sun Prairie Apartments being on fire that I shouldn't worry because it wasn't our building. I believe that put me in shock. I really didn't realize how close it was to my apartment until I had to park about 1/2 mile away because of police baracades. It turned out to be the building directly next to mine:
(Click for larger version)
Pretty freaky, huh? If you look in that picture, you'll see three columns of balconies on the building on the left-hand side of the photo. My apartment is on the second floor of the third and farthest set. Granted, of anyone in that building, I had the least to worry about, but I'm still in the building directly adjacent to a building that will more than likely be torn down.After seeing reports on TV at work, I thought it was in a building a couple buildings away. So, I was pretty shocked when it turned out to be directly next door, a building I drive past every time I leave or come home. Imagine your neighboor's house burning down. It would probably shake you up pretty good, right? Well, imagine that your and your neighboor's "houses" are 3-story apartment buildings that burn like firewood. How would that make you feel? The news agencies have been saying that a lot of the people burnt out of a home this evening did not have any type of insurance. I am afraid to say that I am in that boat; Anna and I plan on changing that as soon as possible. I really felt quite a bit of sadness for the people living in that building. My understanding is that out of the 24 apartments in that building, 12 are heavily damaged, and 6 only have minor damage. After looking at the building, I find it difficult at best to believe that any apartments weren't damaged in some regard. Eventually, the top floor will require some sort of demolition. How can the top floor be demolished while allowing lower level apartments some salvation? Or, how can you stabilize the building to allow the tenants in the apartments time to remove any salvageable belongings? Regardless, it should be an interesting process to witness. If you're interested, here are links to articles by local news agencies where various pictures and videos are available: Also, I took quite a few pictures from this interesting and frightening experience. They can be found here. Also, just for interests sake, here is my blog entry about getting the lease signed on this apartment. |
