"This is not a drill!"
One of the supervisors on our floor came running into our office and told us to grab our bags and leave the building immediately--the fire alarms were ringing for real, this time. Chicken and/or fool that I am, I stopped to put on my boots, sweater, windbreaker, and coat before grabbing my backpack and clearing out--I just couldn't deal with the idea of being outdoors in this weather without all my layers. (The backpack doubles as an extra layer for my back.)
Picture several hundred people heading down a flight of stairs while a dozen or so of New York's Bravest headed up, with the usual outrageous number of pounds of fire-fighting equipment strapped to their backs. Picture hundreds milling about a Manhattan sidewalk in 16-degree-Fahrenheit/8 1/2-degree Celsius weather with 17-mile-per-hour winds for about 20 minutes before we got the all-clear. Not my idea of fun. I'm happy to report that there were no injuries. There was some damage to the building, however. No doubt, we'll be hearing more about that.
Picture several hundred people heading down a flight of stairs while a dozen or so of New York's Bravest headed up, with the usual outrageous number of pounds of fire-fighting equipment strapped to their backs. Picture hundreds milling about a Manhattan sidewalk in 16-degree-Fahrenheit/8 1/2-degree Celsius weather with 17-mile-per-hour winds for about 20 minutes before we got the all-clear. Not my idea of fun. I'm happy to report that there were no injuries. There was some damage to the building, however. No doubt, we'll be hearing more about that.
posted by Shira Salamone at 11:39 PM
2 Comments:
SCARY!
I've had firefighters pounding on our apartment door yelling "This is not a drill!" and the neighbor's kitchen was on fire, but man, firefighters and tall buildings and Manhattan should NOT go together anymore, y'know?
::shudder::
BTW, as I'm wrapping up the current manuscript draft, my brain is already starting on Book 3 (a good thing so I have something new to work on while editing Book 2). And Book 3 is the first post-9/11 story, so this is all sort of fresh again. I'm glad everyone's okay!!
Yeah, it was a bit unnerving. Fortunately, our building is not particularly tall--which was lucky for me, because I'm not sure my left foot has healed well enough to carry me down 75 flights of stairs, even with the cane (which I had the good sense to grab on the way out of my office.)
Hoo boy, you gotta deal with the aftermath of 9/11 in the next book? Heavy. Then again, judging by what you've told us about Book 2, that one's no walk in the park either. Good luck with both books.
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