DENISE HOLLINSHED
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS - Rosetta Falls wasn't worried when she heard the fire alarm blasting Wednesday morning at the Halls Ferry Manor apartments for senior citizens. She was waiting for the scheduled 9:30 fire drill.

The time was in fact almost 9:30, but it wasn't a drill.

On the third floor, Emily Hutchinson had placed a plastic bowl of food into her microwave oven, and it erupted in flames. Hutchinson tried to put out the fire before joining her neighbors in an evacuation of the building at 8725 Halls Ferry Road.

No one was hurt, and damage was minor.

"It was supposed to be a fire drill and ended up being a real fire," said Falls, 72, as she stood outside with 74 other residents and staff.

She said she had been casually walking out before a resident shouted, "Come on, it's a fire for real!"

"I said, 'I'm getting up and getting out of here,'" she told a reporter.

Hutchinson had moved into her room just a few days ago from Chicago. She was a little shaky as she sat outside on a bench.

"I tried to put it out," she said. "I was scared more than anything."

Residents laughed about how they thought it was a drill.

A janitor extinguished the blaze and removed the microwave. St. Louis firefighters opened windows and vented the smoke with fans.

"We were all prepared because it was supposed to be a real drill," said Qiauna Goodlow, the site manager.

Reginald Paige, of the fire marshal's office, who was already on site to conduct the drill, said the circumstances made residents especially attentive to his remarks about safety.

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August 13, 2009