Um does anyone smell smoke?

When we came home yesterday the apartment building smelt a little strange. You have to understand our apartment building to fully appreciate that statement. Our building always has a little bit if a strange smell that keeps changing so this wasn't something new. It smelled a bit like burning plastic. I had a heavy load of freshly launder clothes that I removed from our car and needed to get into our apartment. Tiffany, Trajen, and I along with another tenet that lives on the same floor started to enter the elevator. The burning plastic smell was a bit stronger in the elevator, so Tiffany and Trajen Declined to take the elevator and said they were going to go up the stairs. Our fellow tenet and I continued up to the top floor.

When I arrived on the top floor it reeked of burning plastic I opened the door to my place and put the laundry just inside the door, and stepped out into they hallway. The other tenet asked me if it look like the hallway had smoke in it. It did and it was rapidly getting worse.


About that time a door at the end of the hall opened and a guy came out and asked, “What is going on?”

I replied, “I'm not sure”, and my friend from the elevator asked, if we should call the fire department.
I didn't have my phone or I would have made the call. I asked my elevator friend to make the call. He called 911 and they told him to evacuate the building.

We started pounding on the doors waking everyone up and alerting them to possible danger. A couple of people came to the door a bit grumpy but when they saw the smoke they quickly turned from grumpy to grateful. I don't remember all of the details. I do remember wondering where Tiffany and Trajen were and racing down the stairs to look for them. I found them on the main floor. Next to the exit. Tiffany saw the smoke in the stairs and didn't come up. I remember going back up the stairs after Trajen's medicine and I remember helping a little old Lady and her cat get out of the building. I remember touching the doors in the hallway to see if they were hot.

We got out the fire department arrived and conducted a door to door search of the building looking for the fire. They didn't find and active fire. They concluded someone must have walked in the basement hallway with something smoldering took care of it outside, then left the premises without telling anyone what happened.

That conclusion seems to fit the bill. I wonder if someone melted and burned a “Tupperware” dish on their stove. Tossed it in the trash and caught the trash on fire.

On thinking back on what I did. I should have carried a fire extinguisher with me when knocking doors. What would have happened if I would've found the fire. The important thing is there wasn't and active fire.

On a sad note. The little lady with the cat fell when going back into the building, I don't know if she was hurt. The Fire Department guys were checking her out when we went back inside.