general Never a dull moment

Posted January 7, 2008 • Comments Off on Never a dull moment

Until about ten minutes ago, a building in my development was spectacularly and terrifyingly on fire.

I had moral cringings about wanting to take pictures, but once I made the rapid decision that I wasn’t in danger, it was the first thing I thought of.

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For a while, I was on the phone with Jeff (the only person I know on Pacific time), so things are even shakier than they would be otherwise.

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The two pictures above, taken with the long lens, are the only ones where you can even tell what’s going on. They were taken seven minutes apart.

Here’s a video. I saw vehicles from at least three different fire departments (Fairfax County, City of Fairfax [!], and Centreville Volunteer).

You can’t see the fire in this movie; by this time it was contained to the far side (the back) of the building. The light at the top of the ladder truck’s high crane is their spotlight, not a flame, but that’s about where the fire was. When I was on the phone with Jeff the flames were higher than the crane, and the crane was at least a story or two taller than the building.

It’s a four-story building.