Fire...

This has been a strange weekend for me. First my clutch gave out Friday night while driving with my daughter. I was able to force the car into 2nd gear and get us home but it was slow going. I didn't dare take it out of gear. The next day I was able to get it in to a local shop. Luckily it was only the master cylinder and not the clutch itself. Still $450 hurts.

And today I went to the apartment clubhouse to use the weight room. After about 45 minutes another guy and I started to smell something burning. Since the cold weather just rolled in I figured it was dust in the heater elements. He left shortly after and something weird happened: all the electrical devices in the ceiling went out. Lights, TV. Just off. But the treadmill I was on was still going.

I checked the light switch and nothing happened. Thinking there might be a master switch in the hallway, I went out but there were no switches. I thought I saw a bit of dark smoke coming from one of the raquetball courts so I opened the door and looked up to see a blanket of dark smoke near the court ceiling. That's when I grabbed my stuff and got out.

I called 911 while other residents were noticing the smoke starting to billow from under the roof. After about 5 minutes the fire department got there and went in, but from what I saw the fire was in the attic. Soon the fire was starting to eat through the roof and the firefighters were getting out and just dousing the place with water and foam.

The place now looks pretty bad, but no one was hurt. Video here.

Clubhouse Fire