The short answer is “yes.” The longer answer is that it was quite an ordeal to get everything out of that charred space. My friend Ravi came over yesterday to find out if I had heard anything about getting our stuff out of there (we shared the space).
Monday: I called the City of Concord on to get an update, and the person I was speaking to said that there was a break-in at 1am and the police had to come out. I asked her if there was anything stolen, and she didn’t know. Well, I called Ravi to let him know, and he was pretty freaked about the whole thing. He has quite a bit of equipment in that space and the thought that it was all gone was devastating.
Tuesday: Ravi goes down to the space, the landlord is there and says the plan is to open the place up and quickly get everything out. Ravi calls me and says “Can you come down and help me get this stuff outta here?” I’m there in 15 minutes — but before I left I called the police to find out about the break in. They said they had no reports. Whew!
15 Minutes Later: When I got there, some of the equipment was out in the parking lot. Ravi and his wife were hauling stuff downstairs, and there were other bands there doing the same. It was all very rushed and frantic and there was a sense that if we didn’t everything out of the building right now, the city may come in and shut us down. In about 20 minutes we were able to clear out the room — which was a lot easier because of all the “pre-packing” I did on Friday.
One Hour Later: We loaded up our cars and made the first trip to the storage space. Ravi’s wife and I did the haul to the storage facility and Ravi stayed behind to guard the remaining equipment. While we were gone, another band showed up to survey the damage (they lost everything). A big verbal fight erupted between the band members and the landlord. One guy threatened to kill the landlord if he didn’t give him his last name and phone number, the cops were called, and they arrived as we were coming back from storage. It was pretty tense, but the cops were able to calm everyone down. While that was going on, I hustled to get the rest of our stuff packed so we could get out of there in case things turned violent.
Thankfully, by the time we got out of there, everything was settling down and I was glad to be out of there. Nothing of ours was looted and we felt extremely lucky to have dodged two major bullets: the fire and the possibility of looting.
I took some more pictures of the place so you and see more of the damage. The first pics are of our room, followed by some of the charred spaces, and then finally all the equipment in the parking lot.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
J
August 20, 2008 at 2:41 pmYay! What a huge relief, that everything of yours and Ravi’s came out OK, and didn’t get stolen. I was so sure that someone was going to get in there, see the neat packing job you had done when trying to get things out on Friday, and help themselves. WHEW!
Ted
August 20, 2008 at 5:37 pmAfter we closed everything up at the storage place, we all started talking about how lucky we were that nothing really got damaged. Ravi will have to wait a couple of weeks to see if his amps work because it will take that long for everything to dry out.
Lalunas
August 20, 2008 at 7:17 pmWow, you should have taken your little camera and shot the whole thing, then given it to channel 7. Then you would have been famous for your filming talent. Sorry this happened. Glad no one was hurt…
ML
August 21, 2008 at 7:47 amWhat an ordeal! I’m glad things turned out ok for you guys.
I like your category – ‘2008 sucks’. It does, indeed.
J
August 21, 2008 at 9:39 amHA! I didn’t even notice the category. I might need to add that to my blog, and go back and re-tag a bunch of things. 🙂
CG
August 21, 2008 at 10:17 amI am so glad your equipment was saved. I am sure Ravi is quite relieved too. What a disaster!
Ted
August 21, 2008 at 3:01 pmThere was a big collective wipe of the brow after we closed the door on the storage space.
And yeah, 2008 really has sucked.
Autumn's Mom
August 21, 2008 at 4:12 pmWhat a mess. I’m glad you were able to get your stuff out. That scene sounds like it was pretty intense! I feel for that band. What a bummer.
Gina
August 21, 2008 at 10:17 pmI’m joining the crowd in saying I am so happy you didn’t lose your things.
Oy, 2008 is almost over! Hang in there!
Doug
August 24, 2008 at 10:07 amWow… what an ordeal! Glad you got your stuff out.