This morning I accompanied my mom to Times Square Church. We left late, but hey, that’s what happens when you stay up til 2 AM. Anyhow, we went out the door at about 10 AM and when we got to 14th street, where we usually catch the bus to Union Square for the train, the road was shut down between Avenues A and B.
This may seem like a stupid question until you see the following photos, but I asked one of the firefighters why they were there. He said there was a fire in the building that one of the trucks’ ladders was up against. You see, I thought something serious was happening, like a gas leak, a bomb threat, or something that could potentially destroy us all. The whole street was filled with response vehicles:
To the right of the SUV marked “4” is the bus stop we usually use, and the guy standing there is the one who I asked what was going on.
When we first walked by, we couldn’t even tell that the building was burning. By the time we got to the Avenue A intersection, there was some light smoke rising from the building.
I didn’t see anything about this on the news this evening, but there was a guy recording with a professional camera. I can’t help but wonder what was going on in that building that required so large a response from emergency services. Was it overkill, or were they just making sure they brought enough firepower to put down anything they encountered? I have no idea how things work here in NYC in regards to emergency response since the September 11th, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, but even my mom seemed surprised and she’s been living here for a long time.
Regardless, it made for an interesting start to the morning, got my blood pumping and helped me from falling asleep in the warm, cozy Times Square Church annex during the sermon, which was actually pretty good.
Oh, and after the service… I enjoyed an unexpectedly 8 dollar kebab wrapped in pita bread. I think I’d have been better off waiting til I got back downtown to the famous stand on 6th avenue. I can’t remember the name of it, but I’ll blog about it later. Lesson learned. Food prices at the Times Square street fair are steep!
Bradley Farless 