"Did someone yell fire?"

On Friday night, about 12:00 am, Brian and I heard tons of noise coming from outside our window. Then we heard, "FIRE!". We immediately jumped out of bed, grabbed our shoes, the dogs, and our emergency folder. When we ran out of our condo into the courtyard and saw an entire condo unit engulfed with flames. Our 32-unit condo complex is composed of four, small two-story buildings arrange in a square around the pool. All of the residents were standing in PJ's as the fire fighters arrived. The fire was on the second story, and coming through the roof. Brian and I handed out blankets and spoke to the very shaken up college guys who lived directly below the burning condo unit. They told us that they smelt smoke, and heard a loud whistling noise. When they realized there was a fire above, they ran up stairs to help the elderly man. The man keeps his door unlocked at all times since he has nurses come and check on him. The three guys opened the door and saw the man in his chair on fire. The guys used a fire extinguisher, but it was too late. The fire was moving very fast. The man was declared dead.

The guys are obviously affected by this horrible event, and this morning they got some bad news. After talking to their insurance company the water damage from the hoses is considered flooding damage not fire damage, since the fire wasn't actually in their condo. They are NOT insured for flooding just fire.

This might be a good time to go over your own homeowners insurance policies, create a family plan for emergencies, and make an emergency folder. Last summer, as a family home evening project, Brian and I made a folder that had copies of ALL of our important documents.


The tabs include:

-Identification Information (copies of drivers licenses, medical cards, passports, and birth certificates)

-Homeowners Information (copies of Deed, the note, appraisals, homeowners insurance policies, and HOA information)

-Car information (copies of car registration)

-Emergency Contact Information (numbers for family members, hospitals, police, HOA- property management company)

There is a pocket that has a calling card, an extra key to our cars and our garage storage unit with our family storage stuff.