Surprise

We were awakened this morning abruptly by a wailing fire alarm. Startled out of sleep at 4 am in the early pre-dawn darkness, Craig and I looked at each other in confusion. The windows were open, we could smell no obvious smoke. Craig turned to the device in our room to try and turn off the noise. I pulled on my clothes and looked out into the hall way. The alarm was more than just our apartment. The boys were still in bed (on the couches).

I told Craig it was complex wide and we decided to evacuate.

We looked for shoes and I got the harness on the cat. We joined other disgruntled residents out on the tiny "lawn" right next to the buildings. 

The air was heavy with pre-dawn ocean air and noise from the freeway. I still could not smell any smoke. I looked for any indication of fire. We milled around for a few minutes and the alarm turned off as suddenly as it had turned on.

People immediately started to return to the building. I hesitated a bit wondereing if there would be an all clear signal, a bit like the school fire drills that I have participated in while working with the kids. No such all clear signal was given, and Craig was looking at me to see that I was coming.

I heard one person say that if it went off again, he would just stay in his apartment.

I thought about the Church building in Gresham that burned to the ground, hours after an alarm rang out. The fire had smoldered in the attic and burst out hot and fierce after the fire department had already left.

It took me a while to relax and try and go back to sleep.

Eight hours later, there is still no word on why it went off. Life just settled back into the familiar rhythms. 

I wonder what other alarms and indicators we ignore because they are inconvinient. 

I am glad there was no fire. We didn't even see the fire department.