One of the things you worry about, living in a condo, is fire. That worry came to pass last night, and we’re fortunate it was not much worse.
I vaguely recall waking up around the time of the fire because I had heard a siren. I fell asleep, thinking it was just the usual sirens we hear in Bangkok. Crystal had also woken up around that time (maybe around 6 a.m.) thinking she heard an alarm, but it didn’t continue to go off, and she fell asleep.
Around 7 a.m. what woke me up was the fan on the air filter in our room. It was going at high speed, which I thought was unusual, but I couldn’t smell anything. I got up a little later, and once out of our bedroom, it smelled like an electrical fire somewhere. Worried it was something in our condo, I opened our door and realized it was not, as I could smell it worse in the hall.
The particulate levels were also elevated on the air filter in our living room and the fan was going at a higher speed too.
Crystal checked the condo app and discovered there had been a fire on B1, the car park, underground. My motorcycle was also parked there and I worried that might have caused it.
I was driving Crystal to work this morning, noticed some sooty footprints in the elevator, and the door to the stairwell was open. All the windows were open as well.
I took the car to get washed after dropping Crystal off at work. In the car wash at 9 a.m., and done before 9:30! Washed, vacuumed, surfaces cleaned. All for 200 Baht! (About $7.80 Cdn.) Need to have everything clean before our road trip around Northern Thailand next week! We’ve used the same car wash, Wash Army, many times now and they do a great job.
Back at the condo I parked at the top level in the car park, and the sides are open there, with good airflow. I couldn’t even smell that there had been a fire below.
I headed down the elevator to B1, where the lights on that level were almost all off. Right away I saw the car that had been gutted. Looked like it must have been in the engine compartment, and did not appear to be drivable, as you can see! I think it could have been way worse, and seemed limited to a single vehicle.
Of course the first thing I checked was my motorcycle, and it’s fine, although I think it is going to need a good clean. Lots of soot and who knows what else on everything there.
One thing that really concerns us, and I had observed this before, is the lame fire alarm in our building. Some people also commented on the condo app that they hadn’t heard the alarm.
During a fire drill a month or two ago, I heard just how bad the alarm is. It’s a recording, in Thai, and later in English, about needing to evacuate. It’s not loud, the sounds aren’t particularly alarming, and certainly not obnoxious like the fire alarms are in Canada.
The message in English (in an English accent) is something to the effect of “You need to evacuate the building. There is also a sale on scones at a local shop. Perhaps make your way there while we sort this out. Thank you.” I am kidding, of course, but there is no sense of alarm.
A better option is to have obnoxious alarms that drive you from the building just to save your sanity! If it has to be a voice, it should not be polite, and should be screaming “GET THE F*CK OUT OF HERE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! THE END TIMES ARE HERE!” or something to that effect.
All is well, anyway. I headed back upstairs and washed the soles of my sandals, because they were tracking soot. Sorry cleaning ladies! Have I mentioned before how awesome they are here? They are, without a doubt, the hardest workers around! They do a great and, I think, thankless job.
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