The Streets Are On Fire
There's no better place to begin a story than with the image of the narrator sitting on the toilet, wondering if they should have stopped eating before the third ear of corn last night. No, I know it's hard to believe that I didn't concoct this amazing little teaser, but I'm just not that good, folks. I can't just whip up literary gold like this.
So there I sat, minding my business, when the light dimmed, and then flickered. I waited, hoping the brownout would pass before either of my computers crashed or the fuse blew again. It doesn't take much to pop the fuses in this old building and running the big living room ac and a computer could certainly do it.
I turned the light off to take a few amps load off the system, sitting in darkness as I finished up. It occured to me that the light was flickering under the door as well.
I turned the light back on to find it still flickering like a candle and turned it back off. This was some brownout.
Out in the living room, Sara had already turned the AC off. Something was awry here. All the lights were flickering in a seizure inducing candle pattern. Even the kitchen, which was on a different circuit.
Sara suggested I check the hallway, and I did, and then walked to the hall to see if other buildings were flickering too when I realized it wasn't just our apartment.
I was shocked to see a car on fire directly outside the building. I didn't really know how, but somehow these two things were related. The back of a PT cruiser was lit up with bright orange flame, and our lights were flickering in kind.
I got Sara and we watched, bemused for almost 3 minutes, waiting for someone to act, something to happen. I'd heard "Of course I've called 911!" from a man running around down on the street a few minutes ago talking with other gawkers, so I took him at his word and watched.
It hit me, as we were watching, that it wasn't his PT Cruiser that was on fire. It was the street.
My rational brain kicked in for a second. We were okay to be watching this, and there was no need for panic, but I wanted Sara and I to have our shoes on, a flashlight, and her ring. If our place went up like Double G (the pharmacy / residential building that burned about a year ago in a ConEd underground system fire) everything else could be replaced.
The firetruck arrived and the men all stood in a semi circle around the car with a limp hose. They appeared to be wondering what to do and then hosed off the car.
After a while, fire died down, and the firefighters hosed down the now charred and melted back of the car, and opened the doors, letting smoke pour out from the inside.
It seemed that there wasn't much more to see. We reasoned that our power was probably flickering because the car torched the line above it, not because of a system fire.
Except our power didn't stop flickering. Hearing more noise, I checked on the scene about 15 minutes later to find the car moved, and three great geysers of smoke rushing from the manhole cover holes.
It had been the street that was on fire.
I gave Sara a quick
heads up that we might have to move if the rest of
the system caught (dust throughout the tunnels can send a fire raging
from manhole to manhole, taking buildings with it) but that it looked
like it was dying down, and that I was going out to take some pictures.
Snapping a few pics, I asked the firefighters the likelihood of our buildings catching from the fire. The first one I talked to wasn't that reassuring.
"Eh, I dunno, which one are you?"
"On the corner, right there."
"Oh. oh."
"So should we be worried, I mean, if the fire's underground, could our buildings go up?"
"Uh, hey, well, Uhhh" He said, looking like he wanted to say "Yup," but didn't want to cause a panic.
"That's not very reassuring"
"I tell ya what, I'm just a probie, so I'm the worst guy to be asking technical questions. Look for the guy with the white hat and shirt."
"Okay if I take a few pictures"
"Sure, but this is as far as you go"
"Okay"
I snapped a few pictures, trying to keep the camera steady in the extremely dim, smoky light. I finally got one or two by getting down on the ground and leaning against a parking meter.
"You're done" I heard someone say, curtly, to my right. I looked up to see the lieutenant in the white shirt.
"Sorry, I'm done. I didn't think it would be a problem. Can I ask you a few quick questions? That's my building right there, should we be worried?" I asked, diffusing him by letting him do his job.
"Nah," he said, "If you were right here where all the smoke's going, we might not want you there with all the gasses going in. But over there, just close your windows, and maybe open one on a "clean" side of the building.
ConEd came about an hour later with their red emergency truck,and began sending giant roto-rooter tubes and gadgets down in the manholes. I imagine the problem will be fixed by morning. It's still a bit scary to think how ancient the system this city is built on top of is. It's amazing there aren't more problems.
I think this marks the 2nd time I've actually lived up to the name of this blog - "GlitchNYC - a Glitch in the city." Last time was the Blackout - this time, the streets are on fire. And here I thought it was just a clever play on words be cause my screenname was Glitch. Maybe the name was a bit prophetic, or maybe if you live here long enough you just see some crazy stuff.
