5.05.2008

Walkthrough

Still kind of shook by this fire. One of the things that has been oddest has been being on this side of a news story. When I went out into the parking lot Monday morning they were doing a press conference with the fire department. I looked as I went past but then I drove on to work.

I've been catching some of the news reports online. The nice big signs in the background for Halpine View were recently installed -- I think they were trying to spruce the place up. I initially couldn't remember them doing any walkthroughs of the apartments to check smoke detectors and the like, but I went through my apartment file and found this:

So the smoke detectors, theoretically, were checked in November last year. I haven't seen that anywhere -- the management company has been less than willing to talk to the press. So I didn't know quite what to do with it, and I thought I'd post it as my short-lived foray into citizen journalism. The building with the fire should have been checked on the same day as my building. It apparently hadn't been inspected by the pros in quite some time, though.

I'm planning to look for condos before my lease is up. Sprinkler systems? Suddenly a factor.

1 comment:

Regina Litman said...

I lived in Halpine View in the 1970s, and I remember when they first installed smoke detectors! I was a single woman living alone and maybe would have preferred a peephole (do they have them now at least?), especially since mine DIDN'T work one early morning when we did have a fire. Back then, the trash Dumpsters were in rooms attached to the laundry rooms, not in the parking lots, and they sometimes caught fire (or more likely were set on fire). A few years after I moved out, they were finally moved out of the buildings. I now live a lot closer to Independence Hall than to Halpine View, but I was back in the area this past weekend and decided to drive by the old place. I was saddened to see a burnt out building (not the one where I lived) and decided to Google "Halpine View" and fire when I got home. I was even more saddened to see that a resident died. I currently live in a condo apartment, and just last week, we had a fire drill (only the 2nd we've had in the 17 years I've lived here-the first was in 2005) followed by a presentation on apartment fire safety. Also, I work in property insurance and know the importance of having HO4 (renters) or HO6 (condos) insurance policies to cover loss of possessions and additional living expenses. Although I didn't work in this field back then, I already knew I needed an HO4 policy and had one. I wonder how many of the displaced tenants had HO4s.