The other night I was woken up by the wailing of sirens very close by. I looked out my bedroom window, which faces the back of the building, and couldn’t see anything unusual (last year, I was woken by flames coming out of the back of a building next door and we had to evacuate into the chilly night air for several hours and have firefighters charge through my bedroom to try to get into the backyard). So, I figured I was safe, and went back to sleep. What I found out the next morning, was that a building on the other corner of our block had went up in flames, which you can see here.

I feel like all I’ve been hearing about lately are fires, like this one in the Bronx and this one in my neighborhood a few months ago. I never really thought about fires before and have been careless enough to go without renter’s insurance for the last 7 years, but maybe I’ll have to start rethinking my carelessness and realize that I’m just as susceptible to disaster as anyone else.