COVID Kitchen Fan

May 7, 2022

Duboce Park is one of those quiet neighborhoods in SF, where none of the backyards on my block have a party Friday night in the 1.5 years I’ve lived here. Ok. I guess maybe twice.

Dead quiet Friday nights are interleaved with those quiet weekday nights when I can hear neighbors dryer running, clothes tumbling; kitchen fan running during dinner times. I like these mundane soundscape from lively households. Not for long, just around dinner time.

Things changed this Thursday. I happened to be studying at home for the whole day and I noticed one kitchen fan has been on continuously for a whole day.

I need to fix this. I set out to locate the specific hood fan this afternoon after work. The goal was to talk to that neighbor see if they simply forgot to turn it off.

I stepped down the back stairs of my house facing all the backyards. As I lowered my steps, the hood fan became faint. As I rose, the fan became loud. I knew it must be from the adjacent block.

I walked out to the side of the road bordering the two blocks, and the vibration of one house quickly caught me. It is this one and this is the hood chimney.

This unit has three floors. My first thought was that the chimney belongs to the top unit, so I buzzed. Not sure if the buzz worked or there were anyone home, I buzzed again. One angry lady came downstairs, “what the heck”. The moment I mentioned the chimney, she became less mad, and she winked at me: “yes I know, that chimney goes through my wall. It’s been on for 24 hours. It’s first floor units. You go talk to them.”

Ok so I guess I was a godsend to this lady as a neutral third party. So I buzzed again. First floor came to the door. She looked sick, with red eyes. What are you talking about?” Well I started to describe the chimney through the wall. And she said,” My daughter has COVID so we try to use the fan to increase circulation.”

The moment I heard this I expressed empathy and apologized and said, “please keep the fan on then!”