Smoke & Flame in the Village

“Aren’t you on East 9th?”

Thus read a text from my college friend, Toomey. It was a weirdly specific query, one that came with a something of a jolt.

“Well, I’m at the office at the moment, but yes, I live there --- why?”

“Did you hear about the fire? Just west of Broadway??”

It was chillingly reminiscent of a text I’d gotten two years earlier from a friend from high school that read “Dude, your neighborhood just exploded,” wrongly assuming I lived closer to the corner of East 7th and Second Avenue, wherein a gas explosion killed two restaurant workers and essentially brought three separate buildings down.

In this instance, the calamity was indeed much closer to home -– literally and figuratively, but it was mercifully not my building that was on fire. The five-alarm blaze is believed to have spread from a fire in the ventilation system of Bully’s Deli on Broadway just north of 8th Street. E.V. Grieve snapped and posted the photo at the top of the post, looking west down 8th Street from Astor Place.

I’d like to thank those who’ve reached out. Our kids are at their grandmother’s out on Long Island. When my wife and I got home later in the evening, we found Broadway closed off from Union Square to 8th street. I don’t believe I’ve seen that many fire-engines since September 11th.

In any case, we've since lost our landline, cable service and WiFi, so apologies if you've been trying to get in touch. But we're all fine, which is sadly more than can be said for the poor residents of 60 East 9th. I have one friend who lives in that building. He and his family are okay, but spent the night at a friend’s in Brooklyn. It remains to be seen if their apartment was damaged.

This morning, the air in the neighborhood was still acrid, and the damage to the upper floors of the block-long building (the Broadway-side twin, of sorts, to my University Place building) looked harrowingly substantial.

Anyway, without any internet service at home, there may be a slight delay in regular updates here. We’ll see.

In the interim, be safe, have a happy 4th, be with your loved ones and count your blessings.