The Machinery of Night

The Sound of News

Write this down: Circling choppers mean pretty much the same thing as circling buzzards.

I woke today to the sound of circling helicopters[*]. When the first one went by I thought, "Huh, that's unusual. We never get helicopters around here." And then when they came back again I figured I'd better get up to see what was going on. I looked out the front window and -- holy cow! -- there was a Biblical-model pillar of cloud over yonder. We turned on the TV and saw that it was a massive apartment fire a few blocks away.

Latest news says 14 units were destroyed. Usually, in an apartment fire, you lose one unit and maybe damage several more. It's hard to see how the fire could've spread that quickly. At least some of them shared a roof, but still, that's darned quick.

So far as they know, everyone has been accounted for, which I guess is pretty good for an early morning fire of this size.

[*] Actually, what woke me was the lion. My mother (who was lying down on a hospital bed) and I were being stalked by a mountain lion. I woke up just as it sprung. And then I heard the helicopters.

UPDATE: I saved this as a draft and then forgot to post it. This fire, which had BREAKING NEWS/buzzing chopper coverage on several news channels Monday morning, rated not a single mention in the dead trees edition of Tuesday's paper. I guess there was a disappointing lack of deaths.