January College St Fire

Current mood: pretty stressed, thanks for asking
Category: Blogging/myspace

I respectfully request all my friends and aquaintenances check themselves, seriously. Another aquaintence has donated some stress...
[excerpted & reprinted from Grand Rapids Press without permission]

Nine residents, cat escape Heritage Hill fire

Monday, January 22, 2007

By Nardy Baeza Bickel

The Grand Rapids Press

GRAND RAPIDS -- Todd Reinholt was taking a shower shortly before midnight when he heard the smoke detectors go off in the hallway of the apartment he lived in for four years.

"I heard the alarms, and I ran," said Reinholt, 41, who 12 hours later was in pajamas and a coat assessing the damage to the historic home.

Value of the home at 46 College Ave. NE destroyed in the Saturday night fire was estimated at $300,000.

"That's my house, right there. It's gone," Reinholt said as he choked back tears. "They won't let me go back up. They say there's no floors. I don't have anything. I don't have my ID, I don't have no keys to my car. My fish is gone. That's all I have," he said.

Reinholt, eight other tenants and a cat made it out alive.

But it took firefighters eight hours to put out the blaze, fire investigator Pablo Martinez said.

"These people are alive because of the smoke detectors," Martinez said. "Everybody is fine. We were very fortunate."

Sunday morning, the home and immediately adjacent houses were coated in ice from the water pumped into the house to douse the flames. Icicles hung from trees, window sills and doors...[click the Press link above to read the rest] Today, February 16, 2007 Update [here]

I did not know about the fire because I have been eyeball deep at school. However I do know a couple of the former tennants. I wish them well starting over.

WBF8)

Currently listening : Outbound By Bla Fleck & the Flecktones Release date: By 25 July, 2000