One
of the elementals of nature. Powerful. Consuming. Awesome.
Last
Tuesday we got to witness, due to the magic of far seeing, commonly
referred to as 'TV', the destruction by fire of a 550 unit, 5 story
luxury apartment complex that was under construction. It was consumed
in about an hour and a half.
A
giant column of black smoke could be seen from the city house. The
location of the fire, while not one of my trails (I use a different
artery one light down), is definitely in my stomping grounds when I
am residing in the city.
all images from here: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news%2Flocal&id=9479417
It
reminded me, in a very small way, of the fires in the beach community
where my parents had a house when I was growing up. Those timber
houses on stilts would go up and be consumed in 30 minutes due to the
dry wood of their construction and the winds off the Gulf. It was all
over but the cryin' by the time the volunteer fire department would
get there.
I
saw more than one of those little houses go up.
And
then there was the Brindsmaid fire when I was growing up. The
Brindsmaids lived, not next door, but the next house down. Which is
deceiving since this was not a regular 50' x 100' lot neighborhood.
Lots were measured in acres. We had only one acre but our neighbors
had more I think. Anyway, there were three houses on our side of the
private road and we were on the corner and the Brindsmaid's were at
the dead end.
One
night about 10 PM, in a way I don't recall, if it was sirens or a
phone call, we ran out to see the Brindsmaid's two story house
engulfed in flames. It was a three alarm fire. In my memory, the
flames are reaching skyward and the black smoke invisible in the
night. Fortunately, they weren't home, having gone out to dinner.
I
wrote this Tuesday night. Yesterday, Wednesday, there was another
fire, same time of day, only this one was closer, 4 blocks N and
about 8 blocks E. One two story wing of a large church burned but
the fire department put it out before it could spread. Same time of
day.
edit: the authorities don't think the two fires are connected. No word on how they apartment building caught but they think the church was arson.
edit: the authorities don't think the two fires are connected. No word on how they apartment building caught but they think the church was arson.
that was HUGE! i can only express gratitude that it was still under construction and not occupied yet (hopefully). still...
ReplyDeletei am hoping 2 fires in a close area in 2 days does not mean an arsonist.
I feel sorry for the construction workers. All that effort up in flames.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that someone is setting these fires?
ReplyDeleteThe fire and an heroic rescue made our TV. A worker lowered himself them dropped to a balcony below, where a hook was able to get him. As it swung back the entire side of the building fell.
ReplyDeleteI hope these are not arson.
Bloody hell.
ReplyDeleteFire scares me.
Fire is a very scary thing to live through. Hope I never have to go through that again ever. Seeing a news report like this just sends shivers down my spine. Oma Linda
ReplyDeleteWow. That is terrifying. Arson? A fire that big could spread really fast to the surrounding city. Egads. And in an hour and a half.
ReplyDeleteThe authorities don't think the two fires are connected. No word as to how each of them started.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of how they started, how petrifying. Living in a high rise I occasionally think about how to respond if there should be a fire and there is really nothing you can do except head for the stairway. Fortunately, our building is newer and mostly concrete. I wonder why this building went so fast. Perhaps they didn't have fire walls in place yet.
ReplyDeleteHow utterly devastating and very unsettling. They must suspect arson.
ReplyDelete