The Fire Next Door

For someone born just past the middle bit of the last century, I find myself managing this 21st-century work world with a certain amount of confidence that’s mostly bravado (just between us). So after a short lull while one of the bosses was traveling I wasn’t completely surprised by the sudden flurry of emails that hit my account late this afternoon. I may not have been ready, but I wasn’t surprised.

What did surprise me was discovering that the building next door was on fire!

I was trying to concentrate and there was all this smashing of glass going on out back. WTF? I finally leaned out the window to see who was breaking what because let's face it, the sound of glass being smashed isn't all that rare around here. But seeing heavy black smoke pouring out of the windows of our neighboring building is a new one. There were firemen down on the ground floor destroying a lot of windows by the sounds of things and several more up on the fire escapes.

Within minutes enormous flames were blasting out of lower-story windows reminding us mere mortals that fire is powerful and unpredictable. And in charge.

My partner, AleXander, sprang into action. He grabbed the cat carrier and told me to get the passports. Did I have a portable hard drive? Where was it? Get that. Get anything you think you’ll need if we have to evacuate. Do it now!

The cat found this all very entertaining but that's only because she never got stuffed into the cat carrier.

When we went out front, this is what we saw. Well, there was one bozo in that lit window — which is in the burning building, btw — who kept taking photos and watching the drama even as there was smoke coming from the window above him.

You really have to wonder about some people.

As for the neighbors, everyone was out to watch this great spectacle.

The firemen helped an old man out of the building, found a chair for him, and went back to work. New York’s greatest super, our super, Lord Kent was there. The conglomerate which owns our building owns that one as well. Kent was on his phone. He’s going to have a very tough week or so even with porters to help because low odds that the bean counters at the conglomerate will hire professionals to deal with the mess.

Once I’d determined that the fire was contained and that there was no danger of it spreading, I went in and got back to work. The new issue of the magazine was not going to proof itself and no emails have yet figured out how to answer themselves.

It was hard to focus, but the work had to be done. That's how we do it in the 21st century, right?

We had friends visiting from Vermont and this working girl was not going out to dinner until everything was checked, double-checked, and then run through again. I’d peer out the window from time to time, but the big excitement was over. Which was A-OK by me.

I could live another fifty years without that kind of excitement and I suspect my neighbors would agree with me.

We heard someone tell someone else that no one was hurt. I hope that’s true (we found out later that it was true).

But the work got done.

(Postscript - That night another building around the corner burned and this time someone did get hurt. Several people were badly burned and a woman died. Then about six months later another nearby building caught fire; this one on the next block with the fire destroying much of the back of it.)

Still getting the work done but my passport and the little flash drive with most of my writing on it live in the go-bag by the door.

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