Pictures From The Fire

As promised here is a link to the pictures from the night of the fire, as well as a couple of pictures of the damage to the building. It really wasn’t as hard to deal with as I thought it would be.

I guess in a lot of ways that night still doesn’t quite seem real to me. It all happened so fast. The pictures of the night of the fire mark moments in time that are a blur for me. The pictures of the structure seem unreal to me because I never got to see the aftermath. By the time I went back to where my apartment building was it had been demolished and there was nothing there but a hole in the ground.

The only thing that I have left from my apartment is a charred brick that a friend snuck up and took from my apartment. I don’t know how she did it. It was a damn foolish thing to do because most of the floor was gone. But the brick that I have now was once part of my wall. I am happy I have it (and even happier my friend didn’t get hurt trying to get it).

There aren’t many pictures, just six in all. If you click on each image you will see that I have something to say in the descriptions. Still, there are a couple of things that I didn’t say there that I want to say here.

For some reason flickr would not show this pic so I'm posting it. The first thing that I want to say is silly but I just have to say it. Please note that the first pic is a newspaper clipping. I did block out some words and changed my name from my real name to my screen name. Other than that however the picture has not been tampered with. That is not the point that I would like to make however.

I would also like you to note that the caption says that I was hanging from my third floor window. The newspaper where I live is a complete rag. They mostly pull stuff off of the AP wire and print it. The coverage they do of local news is mediocre at best. I want to point this out for a stupid reason, but this has bugged me for years. I was on the third fucking floor! That same dumbass newspaper covered the story a lot over the next few years and they said several times that I was on the second floor.

The last interview I did was with a local weekly paper. It is mostly about area entertainment, but it covers local news as well and does a better job than the daily paper. Yet in the last interview I ever did (I think it was in ’99, five years after the fire) they said that I was on the second floor! I can not tell you how much that pisses me off. If I was on the second fucking floor things would have turned out a hell of a lot different, and you can bank on it! Sorry about the rant, but I just had to get that off my chest.

The other thing that I wanted to comment on is about the picture of me on the ground. When I went to give my second speech in St. Louis it was for the International Association of Arson Investigators' international convention. While I stayed for the whole convention, my Mom came down with some Firefighters from my area to hear me speak. When she saw that picture of me lying on the ground blown up and set up on an easel outside of the convention room she started crying. This is a woman who never cried in front of me once the whole time that I was in the hospital (although I know for a fact that she went elsewhere and sobbed almost daily). When I asked her why she was crying she said to me that no mother ever wants to see a look of pain and terror like that on their child’s face. For some reason that really tears me up when I think about it. I don’t know why I had to bring it up, but it is my blog so I did. Honestly I can't see the expression unless I turn the picture upside-down.

Please note that there is no blood or gore in these pictures. There will be all that you could ever want to see when I post the medical pics, which will be my next post.

I am still gathering pics from Dragon*Con and when I get them all I will post them. I guess it will be good to see me happy after what you are going to see in this post and the next if you choose. I only put up a link to the pics for a reason. I know that some (possibly most) of you might not want to see them.

If I don’t post next week it is only because my friend will be visiting and I will be too busy to do one (and possibly to visit you as well). While doing this post has caused me to cry a little please be assured that it has not devastated me, and I will be back soon.