It is 4 am now... not unusual these days for me to still be awake at this hour, the translation I work on usually keeps me up through the night, since I work better at this hour. Not quite 2 hours ago a strange smell tore me out of the little world of that story, you know, the smell of burning plastic or cables... I could not tell where it came from, so I started checking the electronics in the room for heat, and tried to follow the smell, but other than it being stronger in the middle of the room I couldn't locate anything. Blue flashing lights outside caught my attention, and a look out of the window showed a police car, parked a few doors down. And a lot of black smoke, which billowed out from under the covered walkway under this office. Well, black smoke is rarely a good thing, right? I couldn't make out where the smoke was coming from, but since the police car was at the other corner of the building, and the firetruck that just then arrived also stopped at that corner, I figured that that was where the origin was. And since the smoke got worse, and started creeping in through the windows too, so much so that my eyes started to burn, I figured it'd be a good idea to get out too. You never know...
Interestingly after that decision I turned fairly automatic... grab the bag with the passport, I also took my laptop and the phone, take the stairs not the elevator, cloth for the nose... which I needed, as the stairwell was pretty thick with smoke, too much to breathe without coughing, but little enough to see without problems where I was going.
It was the garage on the next corner that was on fire. By the time I got there a fairly decent crowd had already assembled on the other side of the street, some of them looked like they had just been thrown out of bed... which I guess was the case. Thick black clouds were billowing out of the ground-floor part... upstairs on the top floor lights were on, and I just hoped the firemen actually checked if all people were out of the building, I wouldn't count on it though...
The main reason for that distrust was, that one of the kids who works down in that garage was there, right with the firemen in their fire suits and protective gloves, while the kid was wearing nothing but shorts and flip flops. I guess he stayed upstairs of the shop, and came down when he noticed the fire. He was trying to open the shutters for the guys. In shorts and flip flops... the firemen KNEW the fire inside must be fairly strong, they were spraying the shutters to cool them down, and there was no overlooking the thick smoke escaping through the little space over the shutters. Why on earth would they let that kid even stand so close? I mean, it wasn't like there was some trick to opening those shutters, so what kept them from just taking the keys from him and opening the shutters themselves, and get the half-naked kid out of harm's way? Isn't that one of the first things you learn as a fireman, make sure that lives are out of danger before you try and save what you can from the inanimate environment? And it wasn't just the keys, they also let the kid try and push the shutters up into the holder for them where they weren't too damaged already... I mean, really? Potentially scolding hot metal, and they let that kid try and push it out of the way? Ah, I am just too European for this country, possibly even too German, since I don't really know much about firemen in most of Europe other than there and in Britain, and both of those would in my experience not have put that kid in danger. But he seems to have gotten out alright, though he appears to have hurt his hand slightly...
The shutters partially out of the way, we could see a jolly good fire going on inside. I might have a fairly decent firebug streak in my blood, I have always found fire fascinating and one of the prettiest things on earth. And scariest... The flames leaking out of a shop door and lashing up the building are certainly very pretty. When it's just a few doors from where all your current belongings are, you start to think what else these flames are, as in a potentially destructive force of nature, that can make you homeless in two seconds flat. If not worse...
But the firemen managed to bring it under control soon after, and started walking into the shop to check further. Well, one walked in, another still kept spraying; if that was on purpose I don't know.
Another of the shorts-clad guys that was standing around walked up the stairs to the floor above the garage... nobody stopped him. I'm no expert, but that also seems pretty unsafe to me... Nobody secured the building, they never even roped off the part of the street, so that a few cars that were passing just drove over the firetruck hoses that were being used... I can't imagine that that was included in the original idea of the builder...
Ah well. They extinguished the flames, the smoke stopped floating all over the place, the smell of burning rubber subsided, and as far as I could see it was only the shop that was destroyed. It looked really bad, black and melted equipment, and I could see a motorbike skeleton, and with the waterspray all over I wasn't sure if there was a car further inside too... I hope the shop owner has insurance, else this will be a devastating blow. But else the damage was contained. So kudos to the firemen for getting here quickly enough to keep the fire from spreading any further... even if I would not want to depend with my life on these guy.
Having written this it is turning onto 5 am... I threw all the windows open when I got back in, and I kind of imagine the smell has almost gone... or I just don't notice it anymore... The smoke seems to have gone from the room, too, looking around it seems to be fairly clear. My eyes are tired, but somehow after all this I don't feel like sleeping just yet. Which is why I started writing this down... Well, I'll see if I can't get my friend Holmes and one of his adventures to get me to sleep... no offense, Sherly!
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