Today's excitement

We had a small fire in the building today, in the basement level laundry room. The alarm went off (and old style ringing bell that doesn't sound terribly alarmed), and I could hear what sounded like the smoke detector in another apartment. D went out to see if it was a real alarm while I boxed up the cats. We had a drill once before, so at least I knew which would have to go into which carrier. Still, in a real emergency: no good. I think we (that is, the cats) need more practice. They were calm and very good once in the carriers. The fire department came (really fast response!) and used a big fan to clear the smoke out of the laundry room. Someone's clothes became relocated to the trash can. It could have been that the lint built up in the vent tubes, or I suppose it could have been something inappropriate for the dryer.