Monday, February 15, 2010

Saturday Evening Sacramento Fire

Left: View showing two first-response vehicles. Looking west down the alley behind the Post Office (95818), near 21st & Broadway, about 7:30 p.m., Saturday February 13, 2010, in Sacramento.
BOOM! Pop! Bang!

I was heading out about 7:15 p.m. Saturday evening, but it was hard to ignore the sirens, and it was particularly hard to avoid noticing the explosions coming from the direction of Highway 50. Not far away I could see a big smoke plume with flickering orange light reflecting off of it.

At first, I thought maybe a semi-truck trailer carrying a load of toxic chemicals must have made a bad lane change up on that elevated portion of Highway 50 near 21st Street, but after staring at the smoke I realized it was actually located closer to my house. Let's see: it didn't appear to be the Catholic Center. It had to be coming from between X Street and Broadway. So, what was on fire? The Post Office? The Antique Store? Pancake Circus? Given the explosions, I thought the Antique Store was most-likely victim, followed by Pancake Circus, and unless a terrorist had run amok, or something, it was unlikely to be the Post Office.

Bang! Pop! BOOM!

The fire was actually located in an out-building, fronting the alley behind the Post Office, and squarely in-between the three aforementioned establishments. The Fire Department arrived quickly and set to work putting the fire out.

I went down Broadway to the ATM machine to get cash. I saw the TV News-10 truck heading toward the scene. Good! Like they say, if it bleeds; it leads! Nevertheless, today, no one seems to have anything in the press regarding this fire. It's almost as if the fire never happened! Fires happen all the time, I suppose, and Sacramento's focus at the moment appears diverted to criminal activities, like stabbings. So, the neighborhood drama loses out in comparison.

Driving along X Street, just on the other side of a house from the fire, I saw two people on the sidewalk: apparently an attendant, and a person in a wheelchair. They had hustled themselves out of the house in a hurry, but they looked bewildered: there was nowhere else to go, for the moment. They looked lost: refugees, for an instant. I'm sure they are OK, but it underlines just how fast things can change in life!

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