Never A Dull Moment

When I was on my way home from the subway station Sunday last week about 5 fire trucks were speeding down Grand street and in the distance I could see that all of them hit their brakes right in front of my building.

It was one of these moments when I thought, “I hope our place is not burning down”. I always stop myself in those moments though and remind myself to think positive. A few minuets later I got to the building and wanted to take a picture of all the trucks with the lights going but had a feeling that I should check out what is going on first.

I asked one of the fire fighters not knowing what is going on if I could go upstairs and he relied “no problem”. The moment I opened the door my evening changed. There was water in the hallway. Was that what these guys are looking for? Not fire but water?

I opened the main door. There was water in the kitchen. I heard water running and ran into the bathroom. I was standing up to my ankles in ice-cold water. Where was it coming from? The room behind the bathroom was used as a darkroom by one of my roommates. I opened the door and here it was.

Because of the temperature a 2-inch thick sprinkler pipe had burst. Water was shooting out of it like down the Niagara Falls. I needed some help here. I ran back to the staircase to let the fireman know but was already greeted by five of them in the hallway.

I brought them back in; they had a look at the mess and 10 minuets later the water to the sprinkler system for the entire building was shot off. I spent the rest of the day, about six or seven hours cleaning up with the help of my roommate Kristian.

There is really never a dull moment.

"Never A Dull Moment" Williamsburg/Brooklyn/Lock from door opened by firemen 01-25-09 at 03:57 PM

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