This Week's Excitement

Yesterday morning, around 10:30, I looked out my window to see two firetrucks in the parking lot. There wasn't any smoke and there weren't any alarms going off and none of the firemen I could see looked anxious or in a rush or anything, so I didn't worry about it, although I did wonder what was going on. I went on with my schoolwork (while watching "Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Woman" which I would definitely recommend if you like old science fiction movies) and kept a bit of a watch on what was happening outside in case anything actually happened.

About an hour later there was a loud knocking at my door. I opened it to find two (big, strong, good-looking) firemen (that was not the week's excitement, but it was nice). They told me that there were high levels of CO2 in the building and they were trying to evacuate everyone, and was I feeling okay, and would I crack open a window to help clear the air. In fact I felt fine, even though I had spent the night there (they asked if I'd spent the night, and when I said yes, asked more questions about how I felt). So...I figured it was a good time to forget my plans for the day and spend it with friends (and their children...and their children's tinker toys...). Later, when I was outside waiting for a ride to elsewhere, the news people came and since I was about the only resident outside at the time, I was interviewed by the TV and newspaper people. They kept trying to get me to talk about how scary it was, but I wasn't scared; nothing had happened to me and I felt fine. Plus, there were a lot of firemen there to take care of us (by the time I left they were up to 4 fire trucks). It was interesting to watch 4 firemen go in with oxygen tanks on, especially since one of them was carrying an axe.

Later I learned that the CO2 levels were double what they should be in some of the units on the top floor (but I live on the 2nd floor so it wasn't as bad). It seems that there was a malfunctioning air makeup unit. Anyway, it all worked out. And that was my excitement for the day.

(As an aside: I checked the MSN article to see if they explained what was wrong since I don't remember details, and the only person they quoted was someone complaining that the firemen could have handled it better. Don't read it. She's an idiot. The firemen did a fine job, especially since at first the levels didn't seem too high, and even in the units where the levels were higher, they were never actually at emergency levels. They only quote the upset people.)