What You’d Lose in a Fire
Yesterday, just before 6 p.m., Logan and I heard sirens approaching our office building. Sirens are a very normal thing to hear on the streets of New York. We hear them every day, and Logan once asked me what the sirens meant.
“Something not good,” I said. “When you hear sirens, you don’t think, ‘Looks like somebody’s living today!’”
The air conditioning in our office is insanely cold, so we had the window open, and I poked my head out to see what all the fuss was about.
“Hey, that fire engine stopped in front of us,” I said. “I wonder if something happened at the Starbucks.” Logan shrugged.
“Oh, hey, there’s a second fire engine here,” I said, pointing. “And a third! Where are they running to?”
They were running into our building.
“Hey guys, the alarms are going off, and we’re evacuating,” one of the other people in our office said. “Grab your things.”
“Stay low, and go, Logan!” I said, remembering our fire drill.
I grabbed my wallet and phone, got my laptop into my bag, and was considering what else to take on my desk when Logan shouted, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING? YOU ARE GOING TO DIE IN A FIRE.” We left.
We quickly got into the stairwell and made it outside, and found the other people in our office to make sure they knew we were accounted for. Since it was the end of the day, we didn’t stick around too long to see if there was an actual fire on one of the floors, but I’m back in the office today, so I’m guessing there wasn’t too much damage, if there was any at all.
I got home and thought about what I’d lose if there was a fire in my building. Furniture. Photos of friends and family. Clothes. Dishes. My laptop. If I were given a choice, I’d try to save my laptop and my phone so I could call people to let them know I’m okay, but I could theoretically lose everything, and it would suck, but at least I’d have my life (also, I have renters insurance). Everything else could be replaced. Maybe not those photos, but I can close my eyes and remember them.
During my freshman year, a bunch of people gathered in the living room of our dorm late one evening, and did that thing everyone does in college where we ask questions and go around to get an answer from everyone. We’d play “Never Have I Ever” or “Would You Rather” or ask “What would be the one thing you’d grab if your house was on fire?”
I’ll always remember what one of the girls said: “This question … is not a question for me. When I was 10, our house caught on fire, and we didn’t have time to grab anything—we only had time to make it out alive. We lost everything, but we kept our family. We kept our family.”
This is a great question. My first priority would obviously be my dog, but as far as things–phone, baby blanket (I should really probably stop sleeping with that…) and a certain photo that sums up a 5-year chunk of my life.
I think about this often, because my house is old and hot. Every day when I get home I’m glad to see it’s still standing. I know it’s a new-home-owner paranoia, but I worry.
“In silent night when rest I took,
For sorrow neer I did not look,
I waken’d was with thundring nois
And Piteous shreiks of dreadfull voice.
That fearfull sound of fire and fire,
Let no man know is my Desire.
I, starting up, the light did spye,
And to my God my heart did cry
To strengthen me in my Distresse
And not to leave me succourlesse.
Then coming out beheld a space,
The flame consume my dwelling place.
And, when I could no longer look,
I blest his Name that gave and took,
That layd my goods now in the dust:
Yea so it was, and so ’twas just.
It was his own: it was not mine;
Far be it that I should repine.”
Anne Bradstreet should have had renters insurance.
Oh man, we went through a period when the guys renovating our building would set off the fire alarms a couple of times a week, and we’d all have to file down from the 7th floor. This was also when I had a bad knee injury.
What’s more interesting to me is your office situation. I’ve also heard Choire/Alex refer to “the office” — is there an actual Awl-people Office in New York City that y’all go to every day? Or do you rent desks in one of those startup/freelancer places? For bloggers, what is the advantage of having An Office anyway?
@stuffisthings We rent space from another company, but everyone has the option of working from home, or from Ireland, or from wherever they’d like, and most do. Yesterday was mostly just Choire and me in the same room. I’m in the office every day, though, because I love the routine of getting up early and going to the office. Basically, if there was a huge fire in the building, I would die, and maybe Logan, but the other sites would live on because the other editors do like to work from home.
[Edit] Having a dedicated space to have meetings, is useful! We also like to have bonding sessions.
@Mike Dang
Having worked from home for two jobs, I think just having one space where everyone can meet can cut the isolation factor by a LOT. Both were jobs for state-wide companies that had offices in the bigger cities, but those of us out in the boonies had to work from home. Even just going to the Jacksonville office once every couple of months for one of the jobs was way better than the one where I literally never met my boss or any of my coworkers in person.
That said, for a job with lots of flexibility to work from home, I can understand why the company wouldn’t want to pay for dedicated office space that most people won’t use, or don’t really need to use. This is why I wish that shared office spaces where you can have a membership that allows you to use meeting rooms, cubicles, office equipment, etc. were more successful, or at least popular enough to take off where I live, because I would start that business in a SECOND.
@Jenn@twitter I agree. Editing a blog is actually a large part of my job, and on the few occasions when I’ve worked from home I felt a weird combination of stress and boredom. Certain things would get done much more quickly, but then I’d feel like I was missing or forgetting other things. Also, I found it really, really hard to wake up and get myself out of bed and into a productive state of mind. And I say this as someone who worked from home as a freelancer for years and years before getting this job!
@stuffisthings I think in theory I would love to work from home but in practice I would get very lonely and spend all day being sad and unproductive. Here when I get bored I can force my coworkers to entertain me. At home I would have to entertain myself and that could only go to a dark place very quickly.
@redheaded&crazy Yeah I’m in that boat right now. I thought it would be awesome, but it gets pretty dark and weird sometimes. I honestly can’t wait until this project is done and I can get a real job with coworkers and a place to go that is not one room over from where I sleep.
@AnnieNilsson I’ve worked from home at least 60% for 12 years now. It definitely isn’t for everybody, but I really love it and basically only go to the office to have lunch with folks every couple of months, if somebody else is in town. We have a big conference in the fall where my whole team is all in one place for a week, and that serves as enough face time to keep things going for the next year.
This actually happened to me once – I had a fire burn down the place I was living and took everything I owned with it. I also didn’t have time to grab anything before getting out of the building.
Thankfully, the fire was somebody’s fault, and that person had insurance, and their insurance covered replacement for things that could be replaced. Lesson: please, please, PLEASE listen to Mike Dang and buy renter’s insurance. It’s like $100 for a 6 month policy, and believe it or not, shit DOES happen.
The big lesson I learned is everything of value could be replaced, and you won’t miss most of it. Even the stuff you’re emotionally attached to is just replaced by new stuff to be attached too.
@MuffyStJohn If you have a car, look into renter’s insurance from your car company! I had Geico and their discount for combination coverage was slightly MORE than my renter’s insurance ended up being. So, they ended up paying me like $30 a year to give me renter’s insurance.
Our landlord required us to buy renter’s insurance as a condition of our lease, and I think that’s a good idea. It was $140 for the whole year, with coverage that well surpasses the value of all our Ikea furniture and 5 year old electronics. And it protects him if there’s damage to the apartment.
The policy also includes personal liability coverage, which I hadn’t even thought about before. If I were to accidentally poke someone in the eye with an umbrella when I walked out of my building in the morning, any damage to the unlucky poke-ee would be covered. If I had one of those air conditioners that hangs out of the window, I’d definitely get coverage. Those things falling out of high rises and braining someone is one of my NYC-induced phobias.
YES on renter’s insurance!I got mine through my car insurance and it’s @$100/year.
Also, my family had a house fire when I was little and it is absolutely true: loved ones & pets. Nothing else matters.
The poocher, for sure. Though I am kind of boned because I am on the top floor and can’t really get down 20 flights of stairs carrying the dog due to foot issues. So if it ever comes to that, I will save the poocher and have a broken foot probably.
Mike, you should scan those photos into your computer and then upload them into the cloud. You won’t have to worry about losing them ever again.
Just bought renter’s insurance. Thanks! State Farm was the cheapest AND covered the most, and it worked out to be $160ish for a year–but I don’t have auto insurance or anything else, so it’s affordable and would probably be even cheaper for others.
I actually just had a very vivid dream, not about a fire but a tornado that brought a big building down on my building. All the people in my apartment (for some reason I was having a tornado party?) didn’t care at all, and I just kept thinking the place was going to collapse and I had to leave. So I grabbed my laptop and took the boxes that hold my expensive wine (I work in booze, not that it excuses my choices here although I wish it did) and I methodically packed it in my trunk and drove away from the tornado scene. And now I don’t know how I feel about my subconscious revealing my internet and alcohol dependent true self…
As a former energy efficiency engineer, this:
“The air conditioning in our office is insanely cold, so we had the window open”
is absolutely killing me :)
I would be seriously bummed to lose my record collection or all my books but I do have renter’s insurance and most all of that stuff could be replaced. The three things that I would grab are all sentimental gifts from now-deceased relatives: a deluxe edition of The Hobbit given to me by my uncle when I was 10, a stamped brass tray from Lebanon that came from my aunt, and a sketch of my great-great-aunt Louise made by the somewhat famous artist she was having an affair with (given to me by my grandmother).
Oh man my house burned to the ground when I was 21. Didn’t have renter’s insurance, because I was a fool. But my roommate’s parents’ homeowner insurance covered her somehow and they gave her a check for $25,000 which was the biggest scam in history since she kept like a few books and a set of bedding in the house.
Life lessons.