fire department

Some say the world will end in fire, per Robert Frost, and we've certainly had fires this year. Mostly in forests. But I came home to one in my building yesterday morning. Leaning out the window, I could see a herd of fire trucks, lights flashing. People were sent to the hospital, but supposedly not badly injured. Two apartments were destroyed—one by fire, the other by flood, and many other people were chased from their apartments by smoke. I went out later in the day to see windows boarded up. But it is the possessions strewn on the sidewalk and in the street that remind you that people have lives, now upended.