Coinsidental blessings

tanya dakin

Friday evening i decided to go right home after work and continue to nurse the week long chest cold i have had. We Got Vietnamese take out and settled down for a night of watching Lost on DVD. I knew i would crash soon thanks to the medication i was on around 10 ish. by 2 am i awoke on the couch to the movement of Ant settling into bed.
I decided it was time to get up and wash my face and head to bed as well.
after i finished and turned the water off, there was a strange noise, almost a weird vibration and ongoing pipe like buzz.
As we are both trying to locate were the noise is coming from, i assumed it was the pipes. I headed down the hallway towards the door, and cracked it to hear if the noise was also in the hallway. I saw the Hallway filling with thick smoke. I yelled for Ant, and told him there was smoke in the hallway, and immediately called 911, to tell them there was a fire and smoke in the building. they asked if i could get out. it didn't even dawn on me that there was a possibility that i couldn't. I said "i think so". we threw on clothes and rounded up the 3 dogs quickly, When Ant said " Hurry" i all of a sudden was stricken with fear. This was one of my worse fears, the evacuation involving the dogs. all of a sudden i felt panic. The Alarm then sounded.
we were able to safely exit the building and as we went down the firemen were on their way up.
Thank goodness the fire department is very close to where we live, just about 6 blocks away.
We put the dogs in the car and moved it out of the way of the trucks, I then sat in the car with the dogs to keep them company. Smoke was spilling out of the 3rd floor back windows, where it is occupied by college students who were not home at the time of the fire. It seems as if there was an electrical fire that involved their computer. we also live on the 3rd floor.
we were able to go back in once the fire was put out, they opened all the windows in the 4 story loft building to air it out. we were lucky that it was a warm night in February. in the 50's. it's usually not that warm.
Waking up at 2 am before the alarm sounded and getting those few extra mins to call and evacuate was really a coincidence, but according to my mother it was Gods work.
I won't get into any details about my religious beliefs but I'll take any good fortune,luck and blessings i can get when it comes to my life and my loved ones.

that night after we were all tucked back in bed i was still shaken but extremely grateful for whomever watches over me or my coincidental blessings.