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Burning Down the House

A few months ago my friend Erica moved into a house in Oakland and one of the first things she did was replace the battery in the smoke detector. Good thing she did because early this morning she was woken up by it. Her room was filled with smoke and when she went down stairs the living room was thick with it. She woke up her roommate who was sleeping on the sofa with his friend and just a few seconds after they got up the wall behind the sofa burst into flames.

Instead of just running out of the house she ran back up stairs to wake her other roommate who didn't hear her screaming the first time. And because she has her priorities right, she grabbed her 12" Powerbook. Unfortunately the iPod and iSight didn't make it out.

Even thought the fire department only took 5 minutes to get there, the house is now just a shell. They let her back in after it was out and from her bedroom she can look out into the night sky. It turns out that the house heater started it. It was located under the sofa and must have been smoldering for a couple of hours. She awoke just in time. She's lucky to be alive, and I'm very glad she is.

Todays hero.