Fire is Unacceptable. So are Certain Corporations
Disclaimer: I can be selfish. What I experienced was an inconvenience. Real tragedies are elsewhere. This past week, I took a day "off" work to recertify in ACLS [the medical support of fatal cardiac rhythms], except it didn't go as planned. For some unknown reason, a power line fell across the dead-end road connecting our apartment parking garage to a major road, and chaos--but no fatalities--ensued. Technically, there is an alley, and then the dead-end road, connecting the one to the other, which is why when I pulled up to the intersection of the alley+dead-end, I didn't immediately see the large fire in the road, because it was hiding around the corner. I assumed the drivers of the two cars in front of me had zoned out at the stop sign, but fortunately, when I honked at them to get a move-on, someone rolled down their window and explained, "There's a downed power line with a car on fire. We called 911. Just waiting for the firetruck to come." Wanna k