At 1:30 a.m., Courteney Coolidge woke up to the smell of something burning.
"I thought, oh my god, where's that toast smell coming from?" she said.
Her two sons, ages 6 and 8, were sleeping in their room, in the home the family of three shares on Evelyn Avenue.
Coolidge jumped out of bed and ran into the kitchen but saw nothing amiss. She headed toward the back bedroom, where the smell got stronger and stronger. Looking outside, through a set of gauzy curtains, she discovered the source of the smell.
"I saw this big red thing out my window," she said. "There were six-foot flames coming out of the in-law unit. It was really shocking, because it was really big. It just seemed really big."
The uninhabited in-law unit is just 10 steps from her home. She tried to use her landline to call for help but couldn't get a dial tone.
"Then I started panicking," she said. She grabbed her cell phone and tried to find a signal. Ultimately she had to go into the middle of the street to call 911.
She reported the fire, then ran back into her children's room and told her sons they had to wake up.
"'The fire trucks are coming and we all need to be out of the house,'" she told them. She ran to the front door and put her two dogs on their leashes, which she keeps hanging by the front door. She got her boys into their coats and shoes, also right by the door, and the group trooped outside.
(She later added, in a comment to this story, "I perceived there to be enough time to call and then wake the kids. If our house had been on fire, you can bet I would have left with the kids and dogs first and called 911 second.")
As soon as she stepped outside, she said, she realized her car was in the driveway, and that firefighters wouldn't be able to get into the backyard easily as a result. So she moved her car into the street, then went back to her dogs and sons on the front porch.
She then remembered that her side gate was locked with a combination lock, which she couldn't see in the darkness: "It was night, and I couldn't read it. I had no idea where my glasses were."
By that time, had arrived and they were able to get into the backyard through the other side of her house. One Albany officer turned on the garden hose and began putting water on the flames.
"There was this feeling of relief that somebody had thought to put water on the fire," she said. "It didn't even occur to me to put the fire out."
She said a firefighter later told her it would have been a bad idea had she tried, because the power cable to the main house was connected to the in-law unit, and could have been compromised. Had the unit's roof come down, the cable could have collapsed into the water, causing even more chaos and potential injuries.
Three fire trucks arrived she said. Their lights were flashing but they didn't have sirens on. "It sounded like a bonfire. Normally for me that's such a happy peaceful sound. The stars were out and there were six-foot flames coming out of this building... It wasn't as ominous as it felt like it should be."
"It was the most eerie experience," she continued, "because the fire was so quiet. It was 1:30 in the morning and I kept thinking, am I imagining this?"
Eventually she went to sit on her neighbor's porch. She said police officers "were also amazing," keeping an eye on her sons and holding the leashes of her dogs while she called her landlord.
"Everybody was just incredibly helpful and really reassuring and very communicative," she said. The lead firefighter gave her regular updates about what was happening throughout the Jan. 21 blaze. The team was there until 4:30 or 5 a.m., she said, airing the house out with a fan and making sure everything was safe for them to return.
She said the fire might have started because of flammable liquids in the in-law unit. (She added that she did not have access to the unit because it was only in use by her landlord.)
"We're just really lucky nothing in there exploded," she said. "Whatever it was that started had been burning for a long time before it got to that level of destruction."
Coolidge said she later bought 10 filet mignon steaks to take to the firehouse and police to thank them for their efforts.
"I just wanted to say 'thank you,' for the safety of my children, the safety of my family, my dogs, myself," she said. "I was really happy to live in a place where both the police and firefighters would be so responsive. I know it's their job. But it's different when it happens to you. It just didn't seem like baking cookies would be enough of a 'thank you.'"
When she and her sons dropped off the steaks, the firefighters who helped her in January took her family for a ride on a firetruck.
Capt. Jay Jorgensen of the said Coolidge, a local photographer, had been "just terrific" the night of the fire, and that most of her actions should serve as an example to others who find themselves in an emergency.
He shared two main tips for the public:
- Access to the yard and around the exterior of the house is important, but make sure to keep the doors and windows shut so as not to feed the fire. A closed door can often prevent a fire from growing in size and severity. It gives the Fire Department time to respond and react. Above all, never jeopardize your safety with your actions.
- Never go back into a burning house. (That's not what happened in this case, but the Fire Department wanted to make clear the public understands this.) Your initial actions are to escape the fire while assisting other members of the family (pets included) with exiting. Calling 911 while inside of a burning building is not the priority… Call from a neighbor’s house if need be.
In the end, Coolidge said, she guessed what had been helpful had been getting out of the house, moving her car and trying to make it easy for authorities to access the backyard. Having easily accessible shoes, coats and dog leashes helped her move quickly. And, though she felt guilty for not doing more, she said, authorities convinced her that leaving the firefighting to them had been the right decision.
"Swing everything open (outside) that can be humanly opened," she said, in reference to gates and other outdoor access points. "Then just get the heck out of the way so firefighters can do everything else,"
Coolidge also said she was left with frustration about how hard it had been to call for help. She said she has AT&T's U-Verse service, in which phone and internet lines are bundled into a single cable.
"If that one cable is affected, you have nothing," she said. "My landline was gone and my cell phone didn't work. It definitely was a wake-up call. It seriously made me consider switching over to Verizon. I know it's been controversial, putting up a cell tower. People think it's a health issue. I get it. But it's also a public safety issue."
Click "Keep me posted" for an email alert when we cover structure fires issues in Albany.
If there's something in this article you think , or if something else is amiss, call editor Emilie Raguso at 510-459-8325 or email her at albany@patch.com.
CLARIFICATION: This story was updated after it initially was published to include some additional information from the Fire Department about what to do in an emergency, and from Coolidge about her thoughts the night of the fire.
I guess P&Z and our regressive City Council would prefer to have a mother and her two children burn to death, clutching there useless cell phone, than join the rest of the 21st century by allowing AT&T and other cell phone providers the right to upgrade current equipment and provide coverage. Well at least they wouldn't have been bombarded with RF waves or had to look at unsightly cellular equipment as they gasped for air in a smoked filled house. "We're dying, can you hear me now!"
However, Parsley is exactly right. The nonsense of delaying cell coverage in Albany needs to come to an end. We are beyond the Horse and buggy days, it's time to pave the streets.
In case of emergency it is always good to have a landline for a non-portable phone in a residence. They don’t have the problem of a single service center and, unlike portable phones, they don’t require the use of electricity.
Most Verizon reception in Albany is provided by that monopole. If the site there does not work properly, Verizon cell phones will cease to work as well. Or if customers drop other carriers in favor of Verizon, Verizon's equipment will be overloaded, reducing the quality of their coverage. Depending upon where you live in Albany, you may get better coverage from a particular carrier. But that isn't the point, since you never know where an emergency will occur, you can't know what provider to pick, or whether the provider will be able to upgrade equipment under the city's absurd cell ordinance. That is why the city is being sued by Verizon. AT&T has been trying for four years to get a new cell site in the city. The responsibility for poor coverage in Albany rests squarely with the city council. If you are concerned about the public safety implications of poor cell phone coverage, please contact the city council and let them know your concerns.
The Fire Department had nothing but good things to say about her actions -- I assume they had a much better vantage point than any of us. Finally -- I can only guess that it was clear to her that the fire was not an immediate danger due to the distance, and that someone needed to call for emergency help immediately-- and she was the only one who could do it. That's my take.
The reason I called 911 first was that our house was not on fire. The fire was in our backyard and I didn't want it to spread, but I perceived there to be enough time to call and then wake the kids. If our house had been on fire, you can bet i would have left with the kids and dogs first and called 911 second. Ps. Both the police and fire department crews were given steaks!
Capt. Jay Jorgensen of the Albany Fire Department said Coolidge, a local photographer, had been "just terrific" the night of the fire, and that her actions should serve as an example to others who find themselves in an emergency. I would urge you to contact the city council and let them know about your story and your concerns about cell phone reception and public safety. Years ago when my son was in middle school, he came home to find our house had been broken in to. He called me, I told him to immediately leave the house and call the police from his cell phone. Good thing he was able to go outside, since if he had been trapped inside, perhaps hiding in a closet from a burgler, the cell phone wouldn't have worked.
- It's wise to be prepared (with gear, knowledge of your environment like that locked fence and how/where your utilities work, how long it may take help to arrive) -It's foolish (and maybe illegal?) to store flammable or toxic things in a locked space, or at least warn others what's they might be dealing with - Phones of ANY kind may not work in an emergency, regardless of who provides the service. Short of ham radio or military satellite phones, IT'S SEEMS UNLIKELY MOST OF US WILL HAVE PHONE SERVICE during a more widespread emergency. Since when is it a local governments job to ensure that a particular brand of any service, including phones, have any unregulated access they want, and have so much that phones work in every inch of town, Tilden Park, etc.?
The Telecommunication Act requires local governments to allow access to wireless carriers. "Title 47 Section 253 - Removal of barriers to entry (a)No State or local statute or regulation, or other State or local legal requirement, may prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting the ability of any entity to provide any interstate or intrastate telecommunications service."
It's not like the city council will just do whatever a big company wants- unless the company is UC;-) Someone brought up the fact that, in the past, AT&T sold a tower (or more,) to T-Mobile. AT&T coverage is lacking throughout the country, from Albany NY, to Albany, CA. I also agree that land lines are important to have for emergencies. This town is small enough to know your neighbors and local businesses. Borrow their landline like we did last century.
* Access to the yard and around the exterior of the house is important, but make sure to keep the doors and windows shut so as not to feed the fire. A closed door can often prevent a fire from growing in size and severity. It gives the Fire Department time to respond and react. Above all, never jeopardize your safety with your actions. * Never go back into a burning house. (That's not what happened in this case, but the Fire Department wanted to make clear the public understands this.) Your initial actions are to escape the fire while assisting other members of the family (pets included) with exiting. Calling 911 while inside of a burning building is not the priority… Call from a neighbor’s house if need be.
Make sure to program your local PD dispatch number into your phone... for Albany, it's 510-525-7300.
* I can try to learn more if there's interest.