Tonight I came home from church about 8 PM and made my supper. I was wandering about the apartment doing some bits and pieces of tidying up when I smelled something hot, like burning plastic. I went and checked my kitchen, funny smell but everything was normal. Looked out the kitchen window to see smoke in the airspace. Odd.
One of my neighbours yelled, "Quick anna take in your laundry!!" We hang our stuff out the kitchen windows in the airspace, here. I took mine in with no questions asked, and when I looked down I could see huge red flames in my downstairs neighbour's kitchen. Just below us. One brick floor between us. No insulation, just brick and plaster. Fire!
Huge clouds of smoke started to billow up on both sides of our apartment, the airspace and the outside windows.
My husband was in the shower and I told him what was up and we hurried to gather up our keys etc and leave the apartment...he did throw some clothes on! We went up on the roof (bad move, btw, we should have gone down, but he was afraid of the smoke in the stairwell). He called the fire dept on his cell and was told they were on their way, someone else had called.
As it turns out it was a deep-fat fryer that caught fire, which the man downstairs had foolishly thrown water on. Fortunately he stood well back because the fire basically exploded. But it was contained, he had the brains to close the door and window to the room, and the firemen got here fast enough that though they've lost cupboards etc. no serious damage was done.
Smoke, yes. Our apartment was full of it, and the firemen came in and opened all our windows. There's soot all over the floor or whatever you call the aftermath of smoke, and huge fireman's footprints...terrazo floors,  I'll have to scrub it down with ammonia or something to get rid of it.  We are fine, the building is fine, even my downstairs neighbour is fine. As we say in Spanish, "It stopped with the scare" but I have never been so frightened in my life. My entire life, husband included, is contained in these 63 square meters of floorspace.
After it was all over, the fireman came up to tell us to go home, took one look at me and said, "Ma'am, I will hold your hand going down, but I'm not going to carry you!" My nieghbour across the hall plied me with brandy--the European's answer to any emergency--and I played with their puppy until I felt human again. On that side of the building they only smelled something odd!
So now I have to take down all the curtains and wash them to get rid of the smell, and scrub the floors clean. But they are still there. And so are we.
anna in spain