My neighborhood is literally on fire right now
ZEN2
1,540 Posts
Big ass bolt of lightning has the complex next to mine completely lit up. Crazy red glow outside.. this shit is crazy.
Comments
damn dude take care of yer peeps and get off the internet yo!
dude maybe you should go stay with your girl or something.
I walked outside to see what was going on and the firefighter was like "woah, didn't they tell you to get out, you need to go behind that yellow tape. My entire block (16th St. from Delores to Church) was on fire. I sat and watched for a minute and house by house it got closer to my building. I was freaking out. The only thing that saved our building was that the fires were raging across the upper apartments in all the buildings. As it crept along it got near my nextdoor neighbors building, which is actually about half a story shorter than all the other buildings. The fire fighters broke some holes in the building and the flames shot out the top, not reaching the shorter building. If their building were the same size it would have caught fire.
The craziest part was watching the flames get closer and closer to my building. I was on the bottom floor, so mine actually would not have caught on fire, but I would have been the recipient of all the water used to put the fire out. I kept watching it inch closer and thought about all of my records being flooded, my computer, my sampler, just everything soaked in dirty water. We were so lucky that that building was shorter and left some room for the fire fighters. Lame to worry about that kind of shit when people are losing their homes, but you go from "wow, there's a fire" to "oh shit, all of my shit will be ruined" in an instant.
I checked out the damage this morning.. I really hope nobody was hurt but that shit looked pretty bad. Guess I'll have to watch the news to find out, but the word around the neighborhood is one person died. Looks like the lighting bolt straight collapsed the roof around them and set the whole complex ablaze.
sorry to hear about your neighborhood J*****. my place is right by the pool and I'm sure that doesn't help...lots of close calls last night and I think they are chopping up some fallen trees this morning around the block.
hope the rest of the VA strutters are ok.
i really wish i saved raystar's revision of the NY1 article
I went to bed, and a half hour later, my mom came running downstairs yelling, "Gareth, Becs (sister) get up; the house is on fire." She'd heard 'the water running from the garage, which seemed odd, since there is no sink out there,' and went to check. Basically, a short in the car's electrical system caught fire, and took the garage, and then the house with it.
We ran out the front door as a family, so everyone was fine. I'll never forget the sound of tires and glass popping as we ran out. I turned to my dad and said, 'get the hose. we'll put it out!' His cooler head prevailed, and he told me to get out to the street.
The smell was incredible; i'll never forget the smell of burning house- things like insulation, furnaces, etc. that aren't supposed to burn. It is honestly the most distinct smell i can remember. years later, it still comes back. Near the end of WHITE NOISE, Don Delillo writes about the smell of burning house, and nails it.
The house was a mess. One floor was trashed and gutted, and the rest of the house filled with water, which froze. that night, we sifted through the sopping wet insulation that had fallen over everything to get some clothes, glasses, essentials, and got out.
it was probably the defining moment for my family growing up. Rebuilding was an incredible pain in the ass, but really nothing more; we know how lucky we were.
Year's later, as I was in the midst of my drunken dirt bag phase, and living on a couch, my phone rang at 3 in the morning. I let the machine get it...
"Hey Gareth...This is Aaron. My house is on fire! You're the only one I could think to call-" I picked up. We talked while his house burned.
Glad to hear you're ok, and sorry for those who lost someone in the fire.