February 2012
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The Dryer Fire Story
Leisha: Well, when we [Leisha and Mia] first moved in together the landlady walked me around and I asked, "Where do you clean the lint out of the dryer?" She said, "It goes through the hose---some ventilation system, you don't have to clean it." And I thought, "OH, I don't have to worry about it." Well, apparently that wasn't the case and the lint---
Mia: ...caught fire.
Leisha: caught fire one night... We were sleeping...
Mia: ...fast asleep...
Leisha: --and, at three in the morning, my dog Bandit woke me up and I looked at the doorframe of my bedroom and it was lit orange. And I screamed and I screamed for Mia and...
Mia: ...and I didn't hear you scream... I was fast asleep.
Leisha: Right, and I opened the door and there's a fireball on the ceiling.
Mia: And what did you say?
Leisha: It was the scariest thing I've ever witnessed.
Mia: "Mia there's a dryer fire! Oh my God, there's a dryer fire!"
Leisha: And I was blind---We were both blind.
Mia: I remember looking for my glasses.
Leisha: --And I couldn't find my glasses either and all I saw was this giant flame.
Mia: And then you grabbed Bandit.
Leisha: And you were like, "JUST GO!" And I was like... I thought I could fix it...
Mia: You were running up and down the stairs.
Leisha: Yeah, up and down...
Mia: ---with Bandit, and I was, in the meantime... were you dressed at this point?
Leisha: I probably had something on.
Mia: And, um, I got my passport (laughter). I was like, "I"m not leaving here without my passport and credit card!" And then we went downstairs and the fire trucks came and it was all very, very dramatic and Erin wasn't there, so we slept at her house that night because she lived next door to us. And then we moved into the Sutton Place Hotel for two weeks.
Jennifer: ---while they fixed everything... But then you moved back in, right?
Leisha: Yeah.
Mia: We were fine. But I believe that the reason this dryer fire started because we had been to Little India and bought (Leisha laughs) a little Ganesh...
Leisha: Ganesh.
Mia: ...and we had decorated our house...
Leisha: ...with lots of Indian gods.
Mia: ...and yes, and unfortunately we weren't that respectful to the Ganesh. You know, we would have the cell phone and we were like, "Oh it's for you" and we'd pass it over the Ganesh. What else would we do with it?
Leisha: I don't know, but we weren't really great with it. So we think that the gods were punishing us (laughter).
Jennifer: The good news was that after hearing that story, you inspired several people to compulsively clean the lint out of their dryers.
Leisha: JoAnn the key makeup woman says she thinks of me everytime she cleans her lint out. It's like I'm saving a fire from happening one day at a time.
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