overease

So, I've got my laundry in the dryer and I've put my nice new CD in the player and I'm about to brew my evening coffee when WAAAAAAAAAAAH -- the fire alarm is going off. WAAAH WAAAH WAAAH WAAAH WAAAH. OK, where are my keys. Hm, bring anything else? No, what if it's really a fire? I walk down the ELEVEN flights of stairs in the place where I'm temporarily staying. Lots of cooking smells; it's dinner time. Hm, maybe somebody set off the alarm with their dinner.

Outside, the small cluster of people grows. I'm wondering when they're going to announce a false alarm and let us back in when a fire truck pulls up. And another. And another. They block off the whole street. Men -- many, many men -- in full fireman regalia, big mean axes, and grim looks, stride into the building. Soon we (now a large crowd) are told to get away from the building to the other side of the street. Nobody seems to know what's going on, until...I hear from people near me that there were flames spouting out of the elevator, flaming pieces falling from its ceiling, etc.

Well, it seems the ceiling lights in the elevator caught on fire and set the whole interior of the elevator ablaze.

We'll all be using the service elevator for a while. Scary, but it could have been worse. I knew there was some reason I wasn't a big fan of high-rises....