New York Minute 98 - Fire Alarm

There’s nothing quite like turning the corner onto your street and seeing several fire trucks lined up in front of your building. My first thought was, “When was the last time that I backed up my computer files?”

I knew that no one was home at the time, so I didn’t worry about my significant other. My second thought was, “Should I call her now or wait until I know how serious it is?”

For an instant, I adopted a hopeful attitude. “Maybe it’s not us. Maybe it’s the building across the street.” That hope faded when I saw firemen filing into the lobby in their coats and helmets with their tools and lengths of hose strapped to their bodies.

Luckily, it was a false alarm this time. Someone burned something in their microwave oven and panicked before they realized that the flames weren’t spreading. But it’s a sobering reminder as to how quickly your life can change. We have had fires, in our building before, real ones that did extensive damage. It’s considerably more disconcerting to see the fire trucks pulling up as you look down from your apartment windows.

As the smoke cleared, proverbial and actual, and New York’s Bravest filed back out of the building, the s.o. made her way home and saw the trucks outside. Lesson learned: I should have called her.

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