My mothers B-Day is on July 4th so MrsMac and I headed south to celebrate her B-Day yesterday. We stayed at one of our hotel haunts that puts up with pets (Residents Inn). We stay there 2-3 times a year and many of the staff have gotten to know us so even if it is a bit pricey, we get taken care of very well.
Well at about 0730 hrs this morning the fire alarm went off. Poor Dorothy had her head stuck under the bed trying to get away from the klaxon alarm and MrsMac was in the shower.
Her immediate comment was, "If you are cooking something, knock it off!"
Then I heard a man walking down our hall hollering, "this is NOT a drill. Please evacuate your rooms immediately and proceed to the parking lot."
I stuck my head in the head and asked MrsMac to end her shower, get dressed, and I will be back to help her down the stairs once I return from taking Dorothy out to the truck and assess the situation.
After some coaxing I got Dorothy's head out from under the bed, fastened her leash and proceeded down the fire stairs to our truck. We were on the third floor and once I got to the second floor the stairs were in fact engulfed in smoke.
At the bottom of the stairs was a very animated man hollering for everybody to exit the building NOW! Yeah, yeah, what ever.
Walked out of the hotel into the parking lot there was 50 or 60 people standing in all kinds of interesting sleeping attire.
Some were crying, (Have no understanding why) some were visibly shaking (Again no understanding why) while others were milling around complaining and trying to find out what was going on.
Put Dorothy in the truck and started to reenter the hotel where I was stopped by the aforementioned agitated man. He asked where I was going and I as I brushed past him I said, "to get my wife!"
Well he started to get all agitated with me and said, "Oh my GOD! Your wife is still in the hotel? Oh my GOD!" I put my arm around his shoulders and said, "You need to calm down sir. You are upsetting people."
As I walked up the stairs he followed and told me that he was calm and how dare I reenter the hotel. I of course ignored him.
Walked back into our room where MrsMac was mostly dressed and ushered her out to the hall and back down the damn smoke filled stairs.
We went and sat in our truck and watched the Independence Day clad fire trucks & ambulances show up, with Fireman and EMT folks running around like a coup of chicken's without a head.
All told, five fire engines and 2 ambulances showed up.
Well MrsMac and I sat in old
Turkey Slayer for about 20 minutes when an announcement came out over a PA that the folks who were staying on the 1st, 3rd and 4th floor could return to their rooms. Once the reenter queue was at an end, we did just that.
Once back at the room we finished our coffee packed up, loaded the truck and headed back to the cabin as planned.
There was no bill under our door so I went to the front lobby/reception desk to check out where the Manager of the Hotel was standing there apologizing to anybody who would listen. Also in the lobby was the agitated loud mouth guy who I had words with when I reentered the hotel. He was reliving his moment of fame in front of a host of Pakistani folks.
When the Manager approached she recognized me immediately and started with the apologies. I assured her all was well as even though the Klaxon was billowing its hellish noise, no incoming was landing on our AO so all was well. She looked at me as if I had two heads. Whatever!
So happy Independence Day form old JohnyMac.
PS, someone on the second floor had placed food wrapped in tin foil into the microwave to heat/cook it. Apparently microwaves do not like that and set the kitchen cub bard above on fire
