I got the call while I was teaching a student at her home. A friend and fellow harpist called to ask if I was okay. Hearing I was confused, she explained she had just seen on the news that my apartment complex was in the midst of a huge fire. I raced home—30 minutes of wondering if my harp was okay. I honestly didn’t care about anything else in the moment.

I arrived to massive clouds of smoke, the biggest fire I’d ever seen in real life, and 30 or so firetrucks. My building of about 60 units was, in fact, on fire. The fire, sparked by faulty electrical wiring, started at the end of my building. I watched for several hours as the wind spread the fire farther and farther down the building toward my apartment on the other end. I watched as firefighters fell to the ground in exhaustion from fighting this for four-plus hours. 

As the fire finally started to die down, my roommate and I sneaked past a firetruck on our side of the building on a mission to save my harp. There was no power in the building, the air was tremendously smoky, and the smoke alarms were blasting our ears, but we got the harp out safely. A couple hours later at the nearby Red Cross camp, we heard that anyone who entered an apartment unit would be prosecuted! They explained that just because the building was still standing, that didn’t mean it wouldn’t crumble overnight due to the structural damage. My roommate and I looked at each other wide-eyed and didn’t say a word.

Incredibly, no one was injured in the fire, and I’m beyond lucky to only have suffered smoke damage to my possessions. Our apartment was one of four in the entire building that wasn’t completely engulfed. Sure, I had to replace a lot of things, live in a hotel for two weeks, find another harp-friendly apartment quickly (not an easy task—I looked at 20 apartments), back out of an orchestral audition, and take time off from work and harp, but I am incredibly lucky that I didn’t lose all of my possessions, my mementos, or my instrument. My harp did smell like a bonfire for months, though.

I’m grateful to have had instrument insurance, which helped pay for a new set of strings and a regulation, and thankful to the American Red Cross for all of their help. I am also very grateful for my roommate. As two girls in our 20s, we were emotional messes and relied on each other to get through the next year when things finally returned to normal.