Thursday, March 3, 2011

Nobody Likes To See This On A Thursday Morning

First off let me tell you all that EVERYBODY'S FINE!
(When my kids were small and they would call me from school in seemingly urgent tones about such cataclysmal disasters as a forgotten lunchbox or a misplaced homework, they were well trained to begin the phone call with "everybody's fine", so I didn't have to spend even 30 heart-stopping seconds wondering which limb was fractured...)

But before I was even fortified with my morning coffee, I encountered this scene outside shul on my way to work today:




No less than five firetrucks with lights and sirens were pulling up outside our Beis Haknesses as the elementary school boys were being evacuated (to my place of business, I might add... and in a VERY ORDERLY FASHION).

Further disconcerting was this sight INSIDE the shul, accompanied by a very acrid smell of smoke.





It is a very unsettling and upsetting feeling to stand inside a shul and smell burning, I will tell you that!

There was much walking around with fancy thermal camera detectors, but time passed and though the smell was still as strong as ever, no heat sources were being picked up. In the end, the most low-tech device won out. "The nose knows", as they say, and one fireman just "followed his nose" until he isolated the strongest odor coming from a bookcase in the back of shul.



Some unloading, unscrewing and prying the bookshelf, followed the ultimate "sniff test", confirming that the smell was coming from a transformer in the floor under the bookcase. It could have been much worse and boruch Hashem everyone is fine.



We now return you your regular programming.
This has been G6 reporting.....

6 comments:

itsagift said...

WOAH!! That's scary!!

B"h everything is fine and they were able to get to the root of the problem before it was too late.

And I like that poing you made at the beginning (everybody's fine)! I should write that down and save it in the back of my brain for when I need it for my own iy"h!

How'd you get such good shots of the scene? Did you follow the firefighters all around the shul?!

G6 said...

itsagift -

You have NO IDEA how much of my sanity was saved by training them into the "everybody's fine" line. Of course, the once in a while that "everybody" is NOT fine, you know right away as well....

Regarding following the firefighters around, YOU BET I DID.
There's nothing I won't do for my readers. (Though I will say in my defense that I wasn't the first or the only camera on site)

Doobie said...

my kids school also starts every conversation with "everything's fine". I think it's so smart. who first smelled the smoke and called the fire department?

WH er said...

Mazel Tov on your upcoming simcha Cant't wait for you to post about it.....

itsagift said...

G6-that is the BEST line I have heard in a long time! I'm saving it for the future!!

And thanks for the full report - I see that you will do a lot for your readers - good for you!

Mara (Kosher on a Budget) said...

Oy va voy. B"H everyone is fine, but that is so scary. Just those pictures sent chills down my spine!