Last month there was a huge fire near us. Someone died, a few were hospitalized, and because so many elderly people lived in the complex, the response was huge. At least 30 emergency vehicles! The entire road was blocked off from evening through midnight when that happened.

The good thing about fire drills as a kid is that it meant that the sound of the fire alarm in my apartment complex was familiar to me. I knew false alarms outnumber the true alarms but I also knew every second counted. Luckily, we live very very close to a fire department.

I had negotiating down my personal battery anxiety and I was trying to get myself comfortable with having 30% battery when the alarm broke. So I put my laptop in my bag (doubling as both a Posting Device but also a battery if I need it for my phone) and ran to get my fire extinguisher.

Having had never used it, I removed its wall mount, which was a spring latch which opened explosively and dramatically. Very very cool: The exact thing that can hype one up to potentially help a fire.

But my apartment complex has many doors and most are locked behind other doors. I went outside and smelled the smoke, so I figured this wasn't a false alarm from someone toking on a joint or whatever.

But more concerning with calling 911 on a false alarm is that I'm one of two white people (AFAIK) in my apartment complex. A few of my neighbors don't speak English very much at all and I don't know the immigration status. With even full-on citizens being deported and with recent SC cases, it's always a hard question about whether or not to call 911. But I weighed all the possibilities in the moment and "Everyones possessions burn to a crisp at least and probably a bunch of people die, at least the 90+ year old lady dies" would actually suck so hard.

So I called 911. I still don't know what this "cross street" thing they wanted from me is, but as I called, a young woman left her apartment and said it was all fine. A small kitchen fire they got out of control. Did they need a fire extinguisher (which I was still holding dramatically)? No they did not.

I stuck around for the imminent fire department arrival, explained that I called it in but it wasn't my apartment, then went in. The response was similarly huge and the street was blocked off. It was too dark to see very well, but I looked out my windows and AFAIK no police came or gave anyone problems.

I still think it was right to call 911 to get the fire department to come, and I'd thought through this specific situation before. But I do be ruminating. I'm not looking for validation, if you also think it was the right call, but if you think it was the wrong call then I am very interested to hear that perspective.

I haven't been able to get the dramatic spring clasp back onto the fire extinguisher