3/9/08 - THE FIRE

18:30 - The fire evidently starts in Kike's office

18:45 - Omar calls me to inform me of the fire and will let me know how bad it is and whether Clara and I need to be there

18:50 - Omar tells us to get there immediately; he's on his way too

18:55 - Omar tells us that everything (deli and cleaners) is destroyed

19:20 - Clara and I arrive; lots of fire trucks everywhere; we don't see any fire since it's mostly smoke by now but there's still a lot of it and there are fire people from Pelham, New Rochelle, Mount Vernon (three-alarm fire)

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Omar's family, Clara, and I stayed until about 11. Once we got there, Clara left two messages for Rosa on her cell phone (which was probably turned off because she was probably at church) saying that there was a fire at the store and that she should get here right away. We answer some questions that PD and FD people ask us, including some questions about Kike as a tenant. I tell them about the difficulties of getting rent (how he still owes me $1,000 and how next month's rent was due the following day, March 10) and how he showed me a Con Ed bill the week prior for the amount of more than $9,000. (Omar mentioned that Kike owed the guy who did his surveillance cameras at least $30,000.)

When we got there, we didn't see Kike at all. Apparently he'd gone to the hospital right before we arrived. Originally I heard that he was there for smoke inhalation, but later I heard that he was there for shock (or something). Apparently he exited his store and collapsed. (Still not sure about the veracity of what I'd heard, but he was definitely in the hospital and the police did question him.)

Omar, Clara, and I were mostly waiting there for the guy from the boarding company (Cipco) to come board up the storefront (since it was made of glass) and the roof since it was destroyed. (Someone from the PD gave me the Cipco contact information; he drove to Pelham from Long Island.) At this point, the building is still pretty much standing except someone from the FD said that the steel rods were melted (?) and that apparently means that the roof might collapse. The Cipco guy arrived and he had to wait a bit for the FD to give him safety permission to board it all up.

At 22:30, Rosa calls my cell phone since Clara's phone is off. I don't think she understood Clara's messages, so I tell her that there was a fire that started in the deli and that the store is all destroyed. She says in broken English, "What's WRONG with it?" (I have no idea what she means.) Then she hangs up.

After talking to the Cipco guy and the PD, we all leave around 23:00. When Clara and I arrive home about 45 minutes later, Rosa is not home but the lights are on. Ashley's mom calls me at 0:15 because Rosa had just called HER from the store to tell her about the fire. (We must've just missed Rosa at the store.) Rosa arrives at home a bit after 1:00.

Also tonight, Con Ed comes to cut off service to the building (electric and gas).

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CHANGE IN PURPOSE OF THE BLOG

Since I obviously have no more rent to collect from that IDIOT, this is mostly being used now to record all the stuff that I'm too lazy to write out by hand so I have a place to remember what I did in the days and weeks after the fire...

Also, on the evening of 2/28, Rosa handed me a paper copy of the letter from her attorney. I think she did that because Clara and I had made no mention of the letter to her (because we wanted to speak to our lawyers first) even though we'd possessed an electronic copy since two weeks before that. The following evening, Clara asked her about the letter (while I was out), and Rosa claimed that she'd never read the letter.

(NO, I am not joking.)

Random rant: If Rosa did not actually read the letter (which is entirely possible since she is a complete idiot), it is ridiculous that anyone would hire an attorney to write a threatening letter to somebody with YOUR name attached and not read the actual letter. But if Rosa DID read the letter and is just lying about it (which is entirely possible since she is a complete idiot), she is a total coward and has no dignity to own up to the fact that she is trying to take over my dad's estate. Either way... she is a complete idiot.