Category: Personal

Living on the top floor of your building in New York has some great perks. Views of the city skyline, you can get sunlight and fresher air but disite the hight, noise seems to ricochet up through my windows with the same volume as on the streets. Living in preware buildings however, bring on the drawbacks… no ac or elevators. Then comes the issue, the walk up home.

The other day I came home to the building lobby smelling of smoke. Another tenant was getting his mail and out crashed the female tenant in apt 2 (being here two years I have yet to get the names of more than 3 people in the building, they don’t seem to care much that they know mine either). She was frantic and asked with a hightened tone, “what do I do, I think there’s a fire behind my apartment?!” Dude and I looked at each other and said “Call the fire department!”

Panting after the 6th floor run up, the woman was chilling on the couch, undisturbed by more sirens from the street below (a daily occurrence really in new york). “Where’s my food!”, we had ordered congee and it seams that food was more important than our personal possessions incinerating in a fire brewing below. Within minutes the boys from the fire department were here scoping out the alleys and behind the building trying to find the cause of what smelled like burnt newspaper. With my girl sitting comfortably eating and watching a Seinfeld rerun, I came back down stairs to find out the caused was a trash fire caused by probably a cigarette or match. Good news for the neighborhood, a “ho-hum” for the starving gf.

Then like many days, the sirens start filling the walls with their screeching sound, only this time they come and don’t go. After a few minutes, the night streets are lit with the red and yellow hues of a half dozen fire trucks. I head to the roof and immediately see the sky darkened by smoke billowing from the highrise a block away. Flames are rising and I start to see streams of water coming across the roof tops.

I’ve actually never seen a live building fire and I’m just as curious as the dozen of other bystanders gathering loosely around the firemen working to stop the blaze. I make it down to the street and watch them work on the blaze from several raised ladders. The six floor of a corner building is on fire and all I hear are sirens, breaking glass, the water spraying out of the nozzles of several hoses directed at the fires and the gasping conversations of the people watching around me.

With in 30 minutes the fire was contained but not before I took a few shots from the commotion. I was amazed at the quickness of the fire departments response and even more so at the quickness the fire spread around the floor of the building lit up requiring such a response. I should hope for any one involved in such an event, they get out of the way of siren leading vehicles as instructed and let these men get to the jobs they are trained to do, day in and day out. I hope everyone, even my hungry girlfriend, takes these events seriously.