The apartment building 2 away from me was on fire about 30 mins ago :-(

[Ediacara]

The fire department now has everything contained, but man.... I come home from being out on the river all day, I take a shower, then get dressed and walk into my kitchen and see this massive plume of smoke from my kitchen window!

Between my building is a synagogue that has a roof almost the same height (at least in my line of sight) and definately the same shingle pattern, and at first I thought they were on fire.

I have no idea what caused it, but it looks as though the whole upper floor has at least some smoke, if not actual fire damage. One of the apartments, I am assuming where the blaze started, is totally gutted from what I can see.

Luckily, we're only about 3 blocks from the fire station, so they responded quickly. I didn't see any ambulances, so I think (hope) everyone got out ok.

We had taken the battery out of our smoke detector some time ago, because turning the oven on makes it go off (we don't clean the drippings from the oven often enough). Ya.... the battery's back in there now, and boy do I feel stupid. I mean we didn't mean to leave it out, but it just happened.

If you don't clean your oven like me, get off your ass and put the battery back in right now!

Anyway, I feel sorry for those people, they're all just college kids, and probably don't have renters insurance :-(

Kind of a rambling story I know... but man...

[annagull]

1. That's sad

but I'm glad everyone got out ok. Our laundry room caught on fire when I was a kid and burned half the house, it was really awful. All the things you lose that you can't replace. :-(

[electricmonk]

2. House across from me burned last winter

I slept through the whole thing never heard a single siren or anything. It was the night after the Jan. anti-war rally and I was dead tired but I still can't believe I slept that hard.

7 months later and the burnt out shell is still standing.

This was taken a couple days after the fire.

[Ediacara]

3. News article on the fire

http://www.bozemanchronicle.com/articles/2003/07/13/news/02firebzbigs.txt

I didn't hear the propane tank explode, but that definately explains the massive plume of smoke I saw.

[UrbScotty]

4. Yikes!

I'm glad everyone made it out!