Today as I was sitting at my desk at the offices of IPM Models on 1270 Broadway, my cell phone rang and it was my monster who was calling to tell me that he was a few blocks away with the cell phone I'd left home earlier that morning. I told him I was heading downstairs and quickly hung up. I left Fallon in the office on the phone. As I walked the short distance to the elevator...I could distinctly smell smoke....not too heavy but enough for me to notice...I didn't think too much of it and jumped on the elevator to head downstairs...
As I entered the elevator, I noticed a handsome young man, with blonde hair and some fly kicks against the back wall and a Hasidic man to the left of the blonde cutie...as soon as the door closed, I vaguely remember hearing the fire alarms go off and the unmistakeable smell of smoke filled that elevator...
Alarmed I turned to Hasidic gentleman and said as calmly as I could....
"Do you smell smoke?"I swear to you that this man put on his BEST Helen Keller routine for me...he would not utter a word NOR would he acknowledge that I had even said anything to him. So after a few seconds of uncomfortable silence...I just looked at him and said
"So you just gonna stand there and ACT like you don't hear me right?"
At this point the cutie in cool sneaks just burst out laughing and then the Hasidic man's CELL PHONE RANG and he promptly answered it and began speaking FLUENTLY. I just kept staring at him and muttering
"Oh Ho!! So NOW You can talk huh??At that point the elevator reached the lobby and to my horror I saw that something was MOST DEFINITELY on fire because the entire lobby was filled with smoke and firemen were all over the place...
Ever since 9/11 I don't play with fire alarms, bomb threats etc.....so you KNOW I ran out the front entrance just before they closed it off to public access and found my monster waiting for me right out front. I immediately picked up the phone and called Fallon and told her to grab the coats and bags and come down stairs because there was a fire in the building....lol...she hung up in midsentence and was downstairs almost instantly!
We stood outside and watched the police & the fire department do their thing and watched foolish people (who chose not to evacuate) wave from the windows for nearly an hour. At this point me and the tourists were all taking pictures and once the fire (I understand it was a small rubbish fire that started in the basement) was contained and extinguished....they were very happy to oblige me and a few others with some photos!
Our strength is often composed of the weakness that we're damned if we're going to show.
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