Our Saturday Night

So, it was late - 10ish - and we had just finished reading our scriptures and were in the middle of prayer when we were ripped from our reverie by an ear-piercing shriek. There it was again, and again. It took me until the third or fourth shriek to realize what it was...the fire alarm. I was so confused; it wasn't our apartment alarm, it was the building alarm! At first Daniel was just annoyed that the noise would wake up Dane and he would surely start to cry. So, while Daniel ran in to get Dane I opened the front door to peak out and sure enough there was a smelly, smokey haze. That's when I started to panic. I yelled into the apartment that it was for real, slipped on some flip flops, grabbed a phone and my purse and followed Daniel and Dane out the door. We followed other residents down the stairs and onto level ground away from the building. Residents from both sides of our building as well as curious on-lookers from other buildings filled the parking lot. Daniel was barefoot and I realized that we didn't have any keys with us, hopefully we wouldn't need them. It took about 10 minutes for my heart to settle back down in my chest and start beating normally again. That's also about how long it took for the fire trucks (yes, that's plural) to arrive; one, two, three, four, five! Plus two SUVs and an ambulance. (I thought it was overkill) We watched as they pulled up, dequiped (it should be a word) their trucks, hooked up a hose to the firehydrant and went to work. Dane was absolutely fascinated by it all. He kept pointing to the flashing lights and watched intently as the firemen went back and forth. Fortunately the excitement lasted for only an hour and we were allowed back into our apartment to finally go to bed. It was a kitchen fire on the first floor that had been extinguished before the fire trucks even arrived, or so the occupant assured everyone. So I'm not entirely sure what all the goings-on was about. But it sure made for an eventful night. I'm just really grateful it wasn't a "real" emergency; and now I think we need to have a better plan of action in case something like this happens again.