Bizzarre Incident in the Middle of the Night
Living next-door to a firehouse jades one to the sounds of blaring sirens and the spectacle of flashing red lights. With my recent move to a more, uh, street-friendly unit, my exposure to the comings, goings, and general antics of the firemen next door has risen umpteenfold.
So there I was asleep in bed last night (3:30ish) when I was roused by a cacophony of engines, sirens, and general mayhem outside my aparment. I chose to pay the rucus no mind, and instead just stay warm and cozy with Mutant under the down comforter. Then I heard a massive “BOOOM!” … Whooa - What!? Intrigued but not motivated, I chalked it up to BAU. Then, moments later - another “BOOOM!” … This time, I could no longer ignore the fracas.
I walked up to the bay window facing the street and could see an array of emergency vehicles not 100 feet east of my building, along with a cadre of firmen, all looking at a taxi that appeared to have a fire brewing underneath. I couln’t see exactly what else was going on, but it appeared that the cab had been t-boned by some other car - which then proceeded to back up, peel out, and skeedaddle. Holy saurkraut!
Within a few moments, one of the cop cars on the scene pulled a two-point youee, blasted the sirens, and headed west on California; I assumed he was making hot pursuit of the fugitive driver.
Back to the car on fire: what I couldn’t figure was why folks seemed to be looking at the wrecked car but not, uhh, putting out the fire? Pretty soon, not just the underside of the car was in flames, but the hood/front of the Crown Vic. Then the firemen started spraying stuff on it. I broke out my Binocs to see if I could catch more detail, but that by and large is the whole story. I kinda wanted to venture out to investigate and learn more, but it was just too late and too cold.
So I went back to bed.