Sorry there’s been no posts for a while. We’ve had an interesting week.
Preface: Something bad happened, nothing bad happened to us.
The weather here is almost perfect. Warm days, cool nights. Last Sunday (March 17) we went to bed with the windows open. Somewhere around midnight we woke to a strange noise. It was pouring rain. This was the first rain we’d seen in Guanajuato in the six weeks we’d been here. We got out of bed to make sure no rain was coming in the windows, none was, so we went back to bed.
Somewhere around 6am (Monday 18th), not sure of the exact time, we were awoken by an extremely loud BOOM! Denise said the building and the bed shook, I didn’t feel it but I heard the boom. Our first thought was lightning. I went to look out the front window and a ton of black smoke was streaming up the front wall of the building. I immediately closed the windows. Denise looked out the side window into the stairwell and saw the reflection of flames. The second floor apartment had an explosion and was on fire. (We were on the third floor). The newspaper the next day suspected a gas explosion. Seems like the correct conclusion. All the windows on the second floor blew out.
(UPDATE June 18, 2019: It was not a gas explosion, but an overheated cellphone battery that exploded and ignited flammable furniture/curtains, leading to a backdraft which caused the loud boom)
We put a wet towel at the bottom of the door to the stairwell and turned on all the lights. The bedroom is in the back of the apartment and has a window on the side of the building. I stuck my head out the window and waved toward the front, where a passerby saw me. He flagged down a police officer who also saw me.
At this point, we still have power, still have lights, and not too much smoke.
The policeman ran into the courtyard next to the building and started to climb the wall like Jackie Chan, somehow clinging to a piece of conduit or hose strapped to the side of the building. The pipe could not have been more than an inch in diameter. He could only get as high as the second floor before he had to jump down. Then a neighbor or some other passerby, came into the courtyard with a ladder. The only problem was that the ladder is two stories tall. Next to our building is a small one story building. Two policemen used the ladder to get to the roof of the adjacent one story building, pulled up the ladder, and then used the ladder from that roof to get to our third floor patio. One policeman held the ladder and the other climbed.
This cop is a hero, racing into a burning building to save stranded people. There was no hesitation on his part. He was determined to get us out.
I’m not sure what to call the outside room. I’ll call it a patio. Veranda sounds too nice, and it’s not a balcony because it doesn’t stick out. There is a brick wall about 3 feet high and an iron fence another two feet high on top of the brick. (See pictures below) The policeman climbed over it, but he’s young. We’re old and Denise has short legs. So while the policeman is checking out the apartment to make sure there are no other people, Denise and I are trying to figure out how to get her over a 5 foot high wall. I went back into the kitchen to get a stool.
At this point the smoke outside has turned from black to white, the fire is probably out. Then the lights went out. The policeman pulls out his phone and uses it as a flashlight. He checks the stairwell, says something to the firemen on the second floor, then leads us down the stairs and out the front of the building. Way easier and less dramatic than going down the ladder.
We remained calm and didn’t panic, and I think that’s because we had lights and we knew that someone knew we were up there.
This building is sturdy Mexican construction; brick, cement and tile. The explosion and fire were contained to the second floor. All we had was smoke. There’s not a scratch on us, I don’t even think we coughed. Later that night, we went through all the ‘what if’ scenarios in our minds, but that just makes you crazy. The building definitely helped to keep us safe.
+1 for Mexican police and fire, +1 for Mexican building methods.
The apartment is one of three units in this building. The unit was nice, new, clean and perfect for our 2 month stay. We were in the apartment for six weeks. The building is owned by an extremely nice family, they rent all three units though Airbnb. The owner was very attentive to our needs. Any questions we had were answered promptly. She gave us a pot so we could cook rice. They even offered to let us borrow their car. I would definitely stay with these people again, that’s how nice the experience was. The explosion was an accident, it could have happened in any of the houses we’ve lived in over the years. This hasn’t changed our opinion of Guanajuato or Mexico. This city and it’s people are great.
There were four college kids on the second floor. Early twenties. They got hurt. They were airlifted to a hospital with a burn unit. There were articles in the local newspaper for a couple days, but we don’t know any more. There was a young couple from Monterrey staying on the first floor, they were uninjured. They spoke English and helped us communicate afterwards.
Our stuff was trapped in the building until Friday. We had to go to a government office and give separate statements before we could be let into the building. We had a human translator because Google translate is only good for unimportant things. Most of our things were in the bedroom which didn’t get too much smoke, but some things smell smoky and other things don’t.
We’ve been staying in a hotel since then. Before, it felt like we were living here, which is what we wanted. Now it feels like we are on vacation.
The front. The darker picture is from shortly after we got out. The lighter picture is from a few days after.
Side view. The opening on the right is the patio (top floor), the window on the left is the bedroom. You can also see the one story white building on the right, where the police placed the ladder.
Yesterday we went to Mr. Pampas in León again. Here we are at a park in León. We are grateful to the fire and police departments, the neighbors, the guests from Monterrey, the owners of the building, the government employees who helped expedite our access to the building, and the building itself.
