We live in a very old apartment building, common in Brooklyn, and one of the problems with these buildings is that the electrical wiring is old and prone to fires. This past month we had a fire in our building, the third one over the past year. This time it was a lot more serious that prior times where the fire was put out relatively quickly. Although no one was injured and the fire was contained and didn't spread to the entire building, two apartments on the sixth floor were destroyed by the fire and smoke and the two apartments below were severely damaged by water and the tenants were forced to vacate.

Luckily, we live below and across the hall from where the fire started. The only damage to our apartment was the door which the fire department had to ax to get in to make sure nobody was in our apartment. We were on the way home from getting dinner when the fire started. We feel very lucky that nobody was hurt and that none of our stuff was damaged.

私たちはブルックリンでは珍しく無い古いレンガのアパートに住んでいます。 古いビルの欠点は電気配線が古くなっており、火事の元になりやすいことです。 ここ１年ほどだけでも私たちのビルで火事が３回ありました。 最初の２回は１室で収まりそれほどの災害はなかったのですが、３週間ほど前にあった火事は幸い住民に怪我は無かったものの、 火の元があった６階の２件が全焼、その下の５階は二次災害で水浸しのため住民は退去を余儀無くされました。 私たちも５階に住んでいるのですが、幸い火事があった部屋の廊下の向かい側に住んでいるので間一髪で火の手を免れました。 当時私たちは外食の帰りでだれも家にいなかったので、消防士が斧でドアを開けた以外家のものは無事でした。 住民がみんな無事で私たちのアパートに被害が無く本当にラッキーだと思いました。 皆さんも火の用心。気をつけてください。