Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Big fire. About half a block frome here, it looks like. The hose they just hooked up to the hydrant on my corner loops into the alley halfway down the next block. The smoke plume I can see out my back window looks farther away than that. The police helicopter is expending the extra fuel to hover in place (which actually makes a different noise than normal flight). Lots and lots of sirens; equipment still arriving. Only one truck parked on Lombard street so far. Fortunately it doesn't look like my car will be blocked in. (Still planning to head down to Arlington in a little while ...)

In that block I think the inhabited:vacant ratio is higher than where most of the local fires are. I sure hope whatever's burning was vacant anyhow. In any case, it's burning quite thoroughly based on the quantity of smoke it's putting out. No flames visible from my window as of a couple minutes ago.

Ah, there's the scent. I was wondering when I would start to smell it. Smells more of wood and less of other stuff than most house fires around here, but that might be because I'm off to the side of the direction the wind is blowing it so I'm being spared the full effect.

[ETA: The good news: looks like they got it under control pretty quickly and that whopping huge smoke plume is already gone. The bad news: an ambulance just arrived. Hope the need for the ambulance turns out to be minor (not that I'll ever find out -- a fire on this side of town won't make the news unless somebody died, and even then sometimes not). I'm guessing that they'll still be pouring water on it and looking for hot spots for a while, but it looks from here as though it's under control.]