This post took me a bit of time to write, as I was unsure how to word it, or if I even wanted to talk about it here...I'm still shaking a bit.
I had probably one of the worst days of my life today. My house caught fire! I'm still in shock. It's taken me some time to let this process, I still can't believe it.
I'm okay though my friends, I'm unscathed at least, I got out on time no problem. I'm so thankful for that, that's what important, the "stuff" can be replaced. I don't care about any of that. The Fire Department etc. left awhile ago. I'm working out alternative living arrangements tonight, in fact. I'm planning to stay at a hotel for tonight, then maybe staying at a relative's until I can work out the insurance/repairs situation. The insurance is solid, so things should be back to ship shape soon, maybe an opportunity to build onto the house now, make lemonade from lemons, you know?
I can't remember a day where I've felt more distraught in a long time. It really makes you think about things, about what's important, about what it would've been like to not have gotten out in time...what people who loved you would've done if you didn't...how they would've felt, what they would've said about you. Pretty scary thoughts, I've been having. We truly are blessed to live you guys, really we are.
I still can't believe this happened, it literally came up out of NOWHERE. One minute, I'm planning to relax, then life throws me one of the most terrifying scenarios possible!
You see, it all started when I got home from a hard day. I decided to relax, as you do, of course. Everyone has their own method for doing so. One of mine is listening to music, to soothe and relax me and put me in a good state. At this point, I unknowingly made a terrible error, the Fire Marshal said. One he said he's seen many people make and heard from other Firemen and Fire Marshals all around the world about an epidemic almost of this kind of EXACT thing taking place the last couple days or so. Apparently, it's just sprung up in such a short frame of time, it was never heard of as being a problem beforehand, oddly. So as a result, it's caught all of them off guard while they've tried to diagnose it. Now, it's been happening to so many people when they do the exact same thing I did, which is scary to me so many can have this thing happen to them so often out of nowhere the past couple days or so. I'm 100% positive this will be on the news soon, and a warning will be given to others about doing what I did, maybe even talk of some kind of lawsuit towards those responsible for this risk due to the damages from all the fires to all concerned. The Fire Marshal told me this is getting WAY out of hand now, and they have enough evidence to show this exact chain of events is happening all over the world the last couple days or so, so it's pretty much undeniable the extreme risk of fire at this point now. It could've been a lot worse than it turned out, the "stuff" I have can be replaced, I'm just glad I'm okay. But, more on topic, the Fire Marshal said I made the terrible error when I pressed the play button on my stereo, which I've done often enough of course. My stereo is a very good brand and model, but it's turning out that it has a certain weird vulnerability that wasn't known until recently. It can have a dangerous malfunction when playing certain things, it seems. Some kind of manufacturer defect that wasn't caught in QA, I assume, which is where the talk of a lawsuit is coming from, because of all the fire damages by now. It seems, the Fire Marshal said, when I pressed play to listen to something today when I got home, it must have caused the now known fault of some kind: 1. a short in the wiring to spark up... 2. caused something to melt... 3. something to heat up inside the stereo for some odd reason, to the point it can have a risk of catching fire. They need to finish looking at the stereos they've recovered from fires, to get to the bottom of it. It's a very obscure problem that was only "discovered" in the last couple days if you want to call it that...I'm told it's localised to this very specific custom model, which means this can be somewhat contained, which is comforting. I'd never want anyone to go through what I did...
That's all for now, friends! I've told a few people by PM before deciding to open up about what happened publicly. And I was given some lovely words in return. Thank you so much. I'm deeply humbled and appreciative. I'm so touched.
For anyone wondering, not that it matters per se, but this is what I was attempting to listen to before all hell broke loose at my house. My life flashed before my eyes briefly, listen to it and think of me if you wish:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUC3zHVrGr8