Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Fire at TC???

When I was on the way home around 7:30 pm, I passed by Teachers College. (My home is at 120th St. and Morningside Dr.) And I realized that something was happening in front of the Whittier Hall - the one facing Amsteram Ave. There were 4 or 5 fire engines standing on the street with their sirens on. And I saw a few fire fighters coming out of the building. I looked up to find out what happened in the building, but I didn't see any fire or smoke.

Did fire break out at Teachers College? I hope not. After a few minutes, I saw fire engines starting to leave. (I was at a grocery store across the street.) Well, I guess nothing serious actually occured, but still wondering what brought them to the building.

In fall of 2005, I lived in a brownstone building on 113th St. One evening, someone knocked my door. I asked who, and she answered she was my neighbor living downstairs. What she said was that fire just broke out on the 2nd floor (I was on 4th.), so it would be better to escape even if fire didn't seem that serious. First, I was a bit surprised and afraid, and started to think what I should bring along with me. My passport? My laptop? What else??? Then, when I opened the door again, I was not able to see anything clear except thick layers of smoke filled in the whole staircase. I was toally freaked out. My head suddenly got blanked, and somehow I managed to go down one step by one step while it was still impossible to look ahead. When I reached to the 2nd floor, I saw many fire fighters moving back and forth. I felt a little relieved.

I succeeded in escaping out of the building after all. All I brought was a bundle of keys. Fortunately, that fire didn't harm anything in the building except some stuff inside the unit where fire originally came from. This is my nearest experience related to fire. It turned out nothing, but it scared me enough. Everyone, be careful!!!

2 comments:

Pilar said...

Sue, it could be a cat in the roof! I saw the same as you, but the first thing I thought about, as there was no smoke, no fire, is that there was a missing cut in the roof. That's how they are here, sometimes is too much...I am not complaining, I do not want to be misunderstood. In SFO I saw a man that had been stabbed and in five minutes came the policemen, the ambulance, and the firemen!!! (firemen, what for?)

yoko said...

There are lots of awful unexpected events and accidents happenings in New York every day. We've never known what will be in our neighbour tomorrow. Fire, Bomb, Blackout, Shoot, Stab, Murder, .....

Fire fighters and policemen are everywhere in New York. It was a long time ago, Just I came in the United States, I lived in Scarsdale with my co-workers. We lived in the old big house that the company bought.
I and one of my co-workers were on the grand floor in the three floor house, and it had water leaking from the upper floor at Christmas Day, so the ceiling and the wall in our room were moist and wet. We called the plumber to check the pipes but there was no answers.
We didn't know what to do.( All of us were from Japan and we were in the big own house in different country).
I called to 911, and explained what was going on. Then firefighters arrived with a fire engine very soon and they stopped water leakage for preventing from another damage in the house.
Since then I've been feeling about Firefighter is a real hero in this country, Really, it is.