Yesterday was a hard and scary day for me. I had planned to go to the Galleria Mall just 5 mins up from where we live to buy some winter boots. I had only a limited time to shop since I have to be back to get Levi off the bus. So Kai and I showed up right at 10am when the mall opened. I pulled in the JCPenny's parking lot and parked there. JCPenny's is located in the middle of the Mall. I went in, tried on boots and continued to walk strait into the mall. I made a right towards Macy's at the one end of the mall. We went into a few more shops down stairs and the last one was Macy's. We then went up the escalator inside Macy's since Kai was begging me to go on it. I looked at some more boots and proceeded to go into the mall again. I was now upstairs. I was walking along trying to get Kai to follow me having to stop 100 times! During this time I smelled a strong burning smell. My first thought was the mall just opened and that it was a food area that burned something. I then thought this is REALLY strong for it to be food....but nobody seemed to be in panic so I continued to do what any girl would do....SHOP! I walked down towards the other end of the mall. Kai and I went on the elevator this time to go back down and head towards the middle of the mall back to my car. I was of course going to hit up the stores for boots on my way out. When we came out of the elevator there were lights flashing all over in the mall with a man giving an announcement on a loud speaker. Still nobody seemed to be in a panic. I didn't hear everything he had said on the speaker. All I did hear was, "up and running in an hour." I then saw See's candy close their doors. I thought this is weird and of course something is wrong. So I asked a store clerk, "what did the man say?" She said she didn't know and would call security. She told me security told her they have a situation {didn't tell her what that situation was} on the other end of the mall by Macy's where I was just at. Also to have all jewelery stores close and that there are police on the scene and everything is ok. So I continued to walk that direction toward where my car was. I stopped in a store. Like I said before, there was no panic going on from anybody and if there was I would have been out of there is a flash! So I am in a store trying to get Kai to come in. He was standing at the doorway. This lady comes running down the mall and see's Kai. She poked her head in and said, "You with the child, there is a guy with a gun at the end of the mall!" Everybody around heard this and started to panic. We all exited out of the mall through Nordstroms. On our way out we were all warning people to leave. I stood outside Nordstroms with shoppers ready to go in that had no idea what was going on. A group of us of course warned them all. My car was on the other side of the mall. This wonderful older lady offered to drive us over to my car. By this time it was a MESS! Cars everywhere! Police, fire trucks, PG&E trucks and news vans! As this dear sweet lady was driving me to my car we almost thought I wasn't going to get to my car since the fire was between JCPenny's and Macy's. It all added up now of course with me smelling earlier that burning smell. I walked right by Game Stop! I am sooooo lucky and blessed that we didn't get hurt by this young man who proceeded to do this terrible act. The mall did order an evacuation, but NOT while I was in the mall. I think they did finally at some point when I was in the car with this lady trying to get to my car. In my opinion they ordered the evacuation later than they should have. As soon as that man came over the loud speaker is when they should have done it. To me, by this man talking over a loud speaker tells me that they already knew there was a fire and that was the "situation" he was referring to.
When I got home Levi's bus arrived shortly after. The first thing he said to me was he saw a boy on his way to school get hit by a car! Levi was disturbed by this. I felt terrible. Levi said the boy died. I called the school and they said Levi got all the story right except the boy didn't die. Whew! He was crossing a crosswalk. He had the right away and a lady hit him. So sad.
My husband comes home today after being out of town for a while. I pray I will have a better more uplifting day.
Here is a link about the fire and the guy that started this all.
http://cbs13.com/breakingnews/roseville.galleria.store.2.1974197.html
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