Within a few minutes, water started pouring from the sprinkler system, two fire trucks arrived, and a crew of firefighters went to work making sure the fire was out, axing out the kitchen appliances, and securing the building. Captain Mike Stewart came to make sure the building was safe, and PuroClean’s emergency services started removing the water and treating the effects of fire and smoke before the fire trucks had even pulled out.
In the end, Breeann’s apartment has fire and water damage and will be out of commission for a few weeks during repairs. The five other apartments in that wing were lucky in that there was no fire damage, but there’s plenty of smoke and water damage. Those sprinklers put out a lot of water—it looked like it was pouring rain inside the building!
The water seeped down walls and through floors to flood the first-floor counseling suites and then all the way down to flood the lower level where our kids gather every Wednesday evening to sing and play music in Daybreak’s popular Coffee House program. The Coffee House’s sound equipment is ruined, and we’ll need to repaint and replace carpeting and furniture on all three floors, but those are all just things and easily replaced.
In the meantime, we moved Breeann into our last vacant apartment. The five other youth from that wing were moved to a temporary location while we dry out and clean their apartments, clothing, and other personal items. After we’ve cleaned up and assessed the damage, we’ll start making the necessary repairs.
The fire turned an ordinary day into a somewhat harrowing day. However, Daybreak CEO Linda Kramer, declared it a good day as well because…
no one was hurt,
the warm spring weather made the evacuation easier, and
the damage, while certainly unwelcome, can all be repaired.