Fire!!

Okay, well this happened awhile ago, nothing to be alarmed about now, but I figured I'd go ahead and tell the story to you all. 

One night, I was sitting in my dorm room, and I saw all these lights flashing, coming from outside.  I hadn't noticed it at first because I was in my room and not our living room.  So I went over to the window and peeked outside.  Three firetrucks were parked on the street by my dorm along with about 200 students.

Obviously, I knew this wasn't just a drill, or else the trucks wouldn't be there.  But it couldn't be a real fire, because the fire alarms in our rooms would've went off.  (I knew they worked from fire drills that have interrupted my previous naps)  So I didn't really know what was going on, I wasn't sure what to do.  I yelled for my other roommates and we all huddled by the window, wondering what was going on and what we should do next.  If it was a real fire, the whole building would be cleared, right?  And if it was a drill, then the trucks wouldn't be there. 

We paced a bit and my roommate, Courtney went to the kitchen and discovered that the light switch in there was leaking!  Water was trickling out of the panel in the wall and slowly forming a puddle on the floor at a steady pace.  That was it.  I knew there was a real fire somewhere above us, and water from the sprinklers and fire hoses were seeping down the walls.  I grabbed an old handtowel and soaked the puddle, leaving it there to stop the rest of it. 

Heading into my room, I could here dripping and moving water between the walls.  I grabbed my laptop and wrapped it in towels and put it in a drawer in my desk.  If our sprinklers started going off or waterfalls formed from the ceiling, my most valuable possession was going to stay dry and safe.  I grabbed a hoodie and went downstairs to find out what was going on and to tell them about the water in the walls.  There was a small stream of water on the floor from no longer being soaked up by the towel as I headed out.  This couldn't be good.  Water + electrical wires = bad. 

I ran into an RA downstairs and she ushered me outside before I could explain what happened at all.  So I had to stand outside with everyone else, praying that my laptop would be okay. 

Listening around, I heard that it was just a small fire, up on the 9th floor.  And only the 8th, 9th, and 10th floors were evacuated.  It was a grease fire, caused by some idiot trying to deep fry Oreos.  The sprinklers in the room went off and put the fire out, but ruined all their stuff and some of the room below it. 

The RA's gathered everyone from the corner rooms that were there, all the rooms above and below where the fire happened.  Including my room.  They informed us that according to our contract with the dorms, they would not be responsible for any damage to personal belongings, and that we should see if our renter's insurance (if you decided to get it beforehand) would cover our losses.  The school would offer to put those affected in hotels for the next couple of nights until another room was available and this was all sorted out, but that was all they could do.  Then they went and said the only rooms that should really be affected was 9th floor to no lower than the 6th, everyone else should be fine. 

That's when I announced that I was all the way on the 3rd floor, and that there was dripping between the walls and that my light switch was leaking.  They were very surprised at that, and said they'd let someone know about that to deal with it.  And they let all of us back in the dorm. 

Getting back, I told my roommates what went on and grabbed a screwdriver and another couple of towels.  I wasn't sure when they'd get around to our problem, so I was going to fix it myself.  I took off the panel from the switch, dried the floor and the wall, dabbed the towel in the box, and set up an end table and my fan in front of it.  I let it sit all night with the fan running to help dry it out.  The next morning, it was dry and I felt safe enough to turn the light on.  It worked with no problem.  So I put the panel back on and put the fan and end table away. 

Now, nobody ever did come up to check out our light.  I'm not sure if the RA's actually told someone, or if they forgot, being busy with all the serious water damage, or if they really weren't sure how to fix it.  But I know that there will eventually be mold growing in between the walls, which is gross and really bad.  But I'll be gone out of this dorm by then. 

Anybody else out there have a fire story?  Or maybe fixing something by yourself?