“Life just changed!”

It’s been a mixed bag of odd happenings here over the last few days.

One of my client’s, a plumbing contractor here in Anchorage, had a very unfortunate accident here yesterday. One of his plumbers was working on a project soldering a pipe and his torch accidentally started a fire. The fire was in a condo complex downtown and pretty much totaled one of the buildings as the fire spread up an elevator shaft to the roof. Between the fire and water damage it was a total loss and 42 units (families) were at a total loss.

(There is a video in the ADN link that shows it also.)

There were no injuries and everyone was evacuated from the building. The fire started around 3:15 pm and was whipped by 25 to 40 knot winds which kept the firefighters busy trying to keep the fire contained to the one building with the hot embers being blown away from the fire site. The three alarm fire was finally brought under control around 10 pm last night with the Red Cross and Salvation Army working hard to relocate those who lost their belongings.

Needless to say that many lives were changed in a brief instant and will be like so many people in these changing times around us. A good man with a great company had an unfortunate outcome on a service call trying to repair someone’s problem leak. Probably the day started like many others for those who left home that morning for work, school, or some other endeavor to return to the chaos of thick black smoke covering most of the downtown area. Fire and other emergency personnel helped those evacuating the building as well as those next door, a high rise with many elderly people who may have been affected by the smoke and the excitement going on around them.

My friends company is basically done now as his insurance policy was immediately pulled keeping him from continuing to work on projects. I was talking with several other contractors today and many felt it was just an unlucky thing to happen. Many felt it could easily have been one of their plumbers and that several others had done repair work in that building over the years.

It’s strange . . . at the end of the Iditarod this year Lance Mackey who had that Cinderella storybook finish made the comment . . . “Life just changed.” . . . and for him it did in a positive way . . . for my friend and those who lost their homes and possessions it did also but in a totally different way.

We never know where and how our lives will change daily . . . don’t worry about the petty things . . . live it positively, fully, and with purpose.

“Life just changed!”

It does for everyone, each day, each hour, each minute . . . Don’t waste it.

Ice

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