So, anyone happen to see that four alarm fire that raged in the Mission District this afternoon and destroyed two apartment buildings. Well, those buildings were just down the block and across a narrow alley from my place. I was at work when my friend Lance calls me to tell me there is a massive blaze in the general area of my block but he couldn't tell just where. So I search the local paper and tv websites for information and, lo and behold, my humble little block is the center of the city's attention. At first I hear that the firefighters have contained the blaze to two buildings just down the block behind my building. The next thing I know, the fire has been upgraded to four-alarm, is spreading remarkably fast and that all the buildings on the Valencia between 25th and 26th street have been evacuated. No word on San Jose avenue, yet, despite the inferno literally a few hundred feet. At this point I leave work and drive home to find the streets near the apartment blocked off, but the fire apparently out.

So I am a lucky man tonight, and will go home to a secure and intact apartment a few yards from where at least 50 of my neighbors are now displaced, several of whom have lost everything they have and will be spending tonight in a shelter. This is a whole lot closer of a call than I prefer to deal with. I'm definitely checking the batteries in the smoke alarm, maybe picking up a few more fire extinguishers and looking up the status of my renters insurance this week, because I live in the same type of Victorian, which I'm fairly sure will go up like dry timber.

On the more positive note, I did get all my money back from the bank thing.