OT: Ken Brody Family

[Laura Brody]

 Our eldest, Alex, woke up to use the bathroom just before 6 AM. When he
came out of the bathroom, the smoke detector was screaming and there was
smoke everywhere. He ran upstairs and woke everyone up. All of the kids and
I were out of the house in under 2 minutes. Alex called 911 to get the fire
department then he called my mother (she owns the building). I think she
was there before the fire truck arrived. Matthew saw that the fire was on
my desk, right near the front door. He ran into the kitchen and got the
fire extinguisher. It was empty or wasn't working. He went to the next door
neighbor and got his fire extinguisher. He used that and a towel on the
flames that were starting, putting out the fire momentarily. The firemen
got there in minutes. It flamed up and they hit it with the water hose. The
fire was out.

  The cat and rabbit were still in the house. Once the firemen let us, the
kids ran in and got my asthma inhaler and some pants for me and clothes for
the other kids. They looked for the pets and found the cat in the attic
bedroom under a bed. It was over an hour after the firemen left before we
found the rabbit. He was alive and hiding near my desk. He was breathing
funny and shaking. We took both to the vet for smoke inhalation treatment
(oxygen box)

  The firemen couldn't figure out what caused the fire. Neither can we. The
inside of the hutch above my desk was burned the most. It had books and
paper in it. Nothing plugged in or batteries in there. My computer is on
top of the desk, filthy, but not burned. Ditto on the 2 monitors, power
hubs, Dymo printer and Neat scanner on my desk. I leave my computer on most
of the time, so it was on before the fire started. Buns has chewed my
speaker wire and keyboard wire in the past, so 2-3 months ago when I
upgraded my computer, I moved my computer from the floor to on top of the
desk. Any wires under the desk are covered with automotive wire protectors.
A few things that were on top of the hutch got melted and burned, but none
of them were plugged in either.

  The firemen broke windows and threw everything next to my desk on the
floor. The soot is covering everything. We didn't lose much to the fire
itself, but the soot cleanup is going to take a while. They turned off the
electric, so we are sorting stuff while wearing headlamps. The smell of
burnt plastic is horrible and it is on EVERYTHING.

  We are all camped out like refugees in a spare bedroom and the living
room at my parent's house. Fortunately, no one was burned or needed to go
to the hospital (the pets were fine and we took them home on Saturday).  My
desk is garbage, but my computer survived.

  Kristina (Evan - transgender), set up a GoFundMe page. If you want to
give us a hand, we would appreciate it. www.gofundme.com/f/24ub0ffaeo

  If anyone wants to know more about the fire, call me at 914-739-5004 or
email me. I'd rather not clutter the filePro list with a ton of non-filePro
chatter.

Laura Brody
laura at hvcomputer.com
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