Burning down the house....

I was asked before we left Florida what to expect on this trip since I was a part of the inaugural class in 2004. My reply was to expect the unexpected, and today was certainly unexpected. While having class early in the morning with Professor Dante Scala, we heard the fire alarms go off in the hotel. Though it peaked our interest, we continued to have our discussion with Dr Scala until we heard the sirens from the fire trucks. After we went outside, we saw that there was smoke billowing out from an upstairs boiler room. After a while, the fire department had cordoned off most of the building and we watched from across the street as they tried to put it out. Eventually, since there was nothing we could do, we departed for our campaigns, and awaited word from JSM who was to hear from the fire department as to what was going on, and when or if we could get our stuff. As soon as I got the last person dropped off in Concord, I received a phone call to round everyone back up and head back to Nashua to get our stuff.
We had to make two trips to the hotel because at first we were not allowed in our section because of the fire investigation. The hotel had arranged for us to stay at another hotel in Chumsford, MA, about 20 miles away. Those who could retrieve belongings did and we took them first to the new hotel.

It was pretty intense to see the damage done to the hotel. I have never seen anything like it. It looked like a disaster area, which it was. Ceiling tiles were on the floor, wires dangling from the ceiling, floor flooded with water. As we walked in the dark to our room, I was getting very nervous as I looked into the other rooms because they were completely destroyed and you could see other peoples belongings soaked or destroyed. Fortunately for Paul and me, our stuff was only wet, flooded by the hoses of the fire trucks. We got our stuff together and packed in the van and I helped others load their stuff. After we got it all together we made the trip back to Chumsford. I laid my stuff out to dry while I found the one washer and one dryer the new hotel had. Since it was in use, I resigned to let my clothes air dry and met up with some others at the tavern in the hotel to wind down and figure out what just happened. Needless to say, I did not make it to Huckabee today, and am reconsidering that anyway.