My Worst Nightmare

This weekend one of my biggest nightmares happened.

Friday
11:45- I come home from a ward dance party...I am the last person in the parking garage (according to police)

Saturday
1:00 AM-  I go to bed.

4:15 AM- A loud "boom" wakes me up and I hear yelling outside.  I dismiss to be the crazy people around the corner.

4:30 AM- Someone bangs on my door and rings my doorbell repeatedly.  I sweat at them in my head and roll over

4:31 AM- My smoke detector goes off. I jump out of bed, grab shoes, my coat, phone, and keys and run out the door.  I see and smell the smoke immediately and see the cops knocking on the other doors in my complex.  I am rushed across the street and watched the thick, black smoke come rolling out of the parking garage underneath my complex.

4:35 AM- I call my dad in a complete panic because I don't know what else to do and Daddy always has the answers

4:45 AM- Call Holly to come and get me because I am standing outside in my pajamas (shorts) and freezing my rearend off.

4:50 AM- Cops come and tell us to evacuate to a local church.

4:55-6:00 AM- I sit in the cultural hall at the church and talk with the other single person in my complex and discuss the fact that there is a good chance my car is on fire.

6:15 AM- They let us back into our apartments.  It smells like smoke, but I am exhausted so I just crawl back in bed and go to sleep.

9:30 AM- I get up for the day and realize a black layer of soot covers everything in my apartment.  I eat breakfast and get to work.

Throughout the day, Holly, my parents, and my sister help me scrub and clean my apartment.  This stuff is extremely hard to clean up because it just smears all over the place.  We get most of the apartment clean...enough that I can live in my apartment.

Turns out, a stolen truck was dumped in my parking garage (and happened to be parked next to my car).  They set the truck on fire intentionally and took off.  The people below me could hear a car alarm going off and looked out to see what was going on and saw the smoke then called the police.  The truck and the car on the other side were a complete loss (see pics on facebook) and my car has some minimal damage to the drivers side- melting of the plastic pieces and weather stripping, etc.

Luckily, no apartments were damaged other than heavy smoke and no one was injured.   I had spent two days cleaning and doing laundry, but it is almost taken care of.  The complex manager will be coming around tomorrow to look at walls and carpet and what needs to be done to clean them.  Everyone has been so great and working to get things taken care of and fix the things that need it.

Everything outside still smells like smoke and my bathroom still has a lingering smell, but other than that things are pretty much back to normal.  I am so thankful that things are not worse than they are.  Cars can be fixed and apartments can be cleaned.  I am so lucky things are like they are and that I have people who love me and help in the time I need them.