Tonight my anxiety has decided to focus on fear of fires. I went to do some searching to remind myself that the likelihood really is quite low—and while that is true year by year (something like 100,000 fires in multifamily units across the US every year, with 43 million+ multifamily units nationwide), either I’m doing my math wrong or the stats for being in an apartment fire if you live in apartments for 60 years are not reassuring.

Of course, I’ve wildly simplified the math because it’s 3 in the morning, so that’s a large factor. Things like building age, maintenance, location, fireplaces, etc. all make huge differences in rates. And the single biggest risk factor is cooking, which neither I nor my neighbours are likely to be doing at this time of night. So, really, the chances are still incredibly low. Far higher odds of car accident, earthquake (not reassuring lol), or heat stroke. Biggest health risk at the moment is just not getting sleep due to anxiety. So, like, really not worth worrying about.

Yet here I am