Senseless tragedy

This is the most serious post I have written. It expresses a large dose of anger that almost borders on rage. If you read this you may feel that I am selfish, but please know that I just need a place to vent and this happens to be it.

On our way out Boxing Day shopping around lunch time we saw a window blow out of an apartment and smoke start pouring out. Immediately my husband knew what to do, he shouted at me to call 911, then he jumped out of the car and ran straight in to the building to bang on doors to get them up and out. It seemed no one was in the apartment that was on fire. But all the other tenants in the building had been ignoring the smoke alarm assuming it was a false alarm. IT WAS NOT. The fire department arrived and did their magic and said that the apartment was empty. Thank god no one was there. The apartment was gutted, nothing was left. What upset me was that 5 minutes after the fire department got there a car pulled up and a young couple (maybe 20) got out and were visibly upset. It was their apartment. Guess what the girl had in her hands.... 2 bags of frozen french fries. Immediately it answered all my questions. But listening to what she said to the fire chief made me so angry. They had put a pot of grease on the stove to heat up and then realized they had no fries. They decided to leave the grease on the stove to heat up while they BOTH went to the store. That way it would be ready to go when they got home. WTF WTF WTF??????? I felt bad that they lost everything, and in that moment I needed to ignore my anger and so I offered my help. I found out their family all lived far away and they had no one close by, so I offered to let them stay at my hotel. I get an employee discount and told them I would pay for it until they knew what they were going to do. I offered them my home to go warm up and make phone calls. I offered them lunch. I really wanted to do what I could. Even if it was just these little things. Now that a few days have passed I am just plain angry and I need to express that. I know they were young but let's face it, this was avoidable by using common sense. My husband risked his life to go into that building, and all the lives of the other tenants were in danger, all because they did something so STUPID. It shakes me to the core to know that I could have lost Chris that day. I am proud that he did what he did, he may have saved lives, by putting his own in danger. But none of it should have happened in the first place. I am happy that this is something they will remember forever (as horrible as it is to say). They need to have this as a constant reminder to NEVER do something like that again. I drove by there today and saw the windows are now all boarded up and the waste bin outside is over flowing with their possessions, all blackened beyond recognition.

People, please give a quick thought to your own actions regarding fire safety. Please refrain from any activity that could potentially cause a fire in your home. Remember that it really doesn't take long. The fire dept estimated that it took 7 minute for this entire apartment to be lost.