![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
So, the news here is that the fire alarms went off when we were about to eat dinner last night, and we trooped out (as one does, especially if they are that loud and include strobes), and after a bit could come back in and have our soup. Standing in the rain, we had assumed it was false alarm number eight or so since we've lived here, and hoped the cats weren't too bothered. There was a faint smell of smoke in the halls as we were coming back, and this morning it turns out that not only was it a real though small fire, but the firefighters found a body in the apartment. The building sent email telling us that they will be remedying water damage today, and that they can't comment on police anything, so all we know beyond that is what we saw on the websites of local news stations.
I was accosted on my way out of the building to get lunch by a couple of reporters for one of those stations. I admitted to having been here, and said it was no big deal and that we had thought until this morning that it was just another false alarm, and in fact her station had been our main source of information. The reporter pressed me on my statement that it was no big deal, and I (unplanned and probably not the best move, but words just come out sometimes) said "I'm from New York City. I've had a shooting death in the building I lived in." When she tried again, with something like "but doesn't it bother you that they don't know what's going on?" I asked her a rhetorical question to which I knew she couldn't tell the truth, namely "Is it your job to scare people?" and after she said no told her to find someone else to talk to.
The thing is, it really doesn't feel like a big deal emotionally; I saw fire engines, but we see fire engines every time the alarms go off. This is a large building, and I don't know most of my neighbors even to say hello to. The reporter was I think assuming that I would read this as "happened near me physically, therefore is relevant," but what little we know sounds like this was personal, not the sort of "wrong place at the wrong time" that makes me worry about that location.
I was accosted on my way out of the building to get lunch by a couple of reporters for one of those stations. I admitted to having been here, and said it was no big deal and that we had thought until this morning that it was just another false alarm, and in fact her station had been our main source of information. The reporter pressed me on my statement that it was no big deal, and I (unplanned and probably not the best move, but words just come out sometimes) said "I'm from New York City. I've had a shooting death in the building I lived in." When she tried again, with something like "but doesn't it bother you that they don't know what's going on?" I asked her a rhetorical question to which I knew she couldn't tell the truth, namely "Is it your job to scare people?" and after she said no told her to find someone else to talk to.
The thing is, it really doesn't feel like a big deal emotionally; I saw fire engines, but we see fire engines every time the alarms go off. This is a large building, and I don't know most of my neighbors even to say hello to. The reporter was I think assuming that I would read this as "happened near me physically, therefore is relevant," but what little we know sounds like this was personal, not the sort of "wrong place at the wrong time" that makes me worry about that location.
Tags:
