We didn't start the fire

So my wife and I were watching Jack Bauer bust some terrorists tonight when this strange high-pitched warbling sound started blaring through our apartment. I thought it was from the show and didn't think much of it, but after a little while I muted the TV and sure enough, it was coming from down the hall. It sounded like a fire alarm, so I popped my head into the hallway to check it out. While I didn't exactly see smoke, I could smell something funky, so the two of us decided to play it safe and get the heck outta there.

We put on our coats, grabbed our laptops and a couple other things like a cell phone and our wallets, and walked out to the front where a few of our neighbors were gathered on the street. Honestly I was just glad we weren't the only ones who decided to vacate--it made me feel just a little bit better knowing other people were thinking the same thing we were. I asked around and no one had called 911, so I dialed them up and told them what was going on, namely that our building could be on fire. Not so good.

A few minutes later some fire trucks pulled up and teams of firefighters rushed into the building which, though the alarm was still blaring, seemed perfectly fine. Turns out it was, actually, and 15 minutes later they gave us the all-clear to head back inside. Near as I could gather, someone on the first floor left a skillet of chow mein cooking a hair too long. So mega props to the firefighters who showed up super quick, checked things out, and even held the doors for all us shivering apartment-dwellers as we went back inside.

But hey, even if the place had burned down, at least we had that sweet off-site backup hard drive for my wife's dissertation. :)