Fire!

My mother's apartment in Wilmington, DE, has been damaged in a fire. Luckily, she wasn't home when it happened, but some others in the building weren't so lucky. One person died. Can you believe that people still die in fires? A friend and I agreed that humans should have this hazard under control by now.

A tragedy like this was bound to happen in this building. First of all it's loaded with old people. (Invariably my ride in the elevator to the top floor is interupted by a smelly old guy with a tracheotomy and an oxygen tank who's going from the eighth floor to the nineth. ) What's more, it doesn't even have a sprinkler system. If it did, I doubt there would have been a fatality.

The fire started four floors down and directly below mom's apartment. I know from the news reports that the four apartments below hers were all gutted in the fire. There's no mention of hers though, but this photo make is look pretty bad. The apartment balcony and windows are completely obscurred by smoke in this shot.

Anyway, we'll know soon how bad the damage is.