Saturday, March 18, 2006

A Peaceful Saturday

It was pretty wild in Louisville last night.  No, not because it was St. Patrick's Day and people were out last night partying and drinking green beer.  It was wild because we had a six-alarm fire in downtown Louisville. 

The fire was at 11th and Zane, in a huge three-story warehouse that covered over one block. Reports said that the warehouse contained cardboard boxes, so at least it was just cardboard burning and not chemicals or other things that could have cause the area to be evacuated.   I hesitate to use the term "impressive" to describe what we saw on the non-stop news coverage last night, but it's the only word that fits.  I've never seen any flames like that in any TV show or movie.  At one point, about an hour and a half after the fire started, the middle of the building caved in and you could see what appeared to be a tornado of fire coming up.  It was pretty wild to see on TV; I can't imagine what the firefighters felt.

I did learn something while watching the non-stop news coverage last night - I learned exactly what a six-alarm fire is.  The rising number of "alarms" given a fire refers to how much equipment is brought in. With each new level, three engines, two trucks and an assistant chief are added.  Firefighters from out in the suburbs left their areas and came into the city to cover for the firehouses, since every city firefighter was at this fire.  And the trusty PRP Fire Department went some of their firefighters out to the suburbs to cover their areas.  Thank goodness there were no other fire dramas last night, and there was only one minor injury to a firefighter at the warehouse fire. 

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