At 10:08 Thursday January 7th my husbands cell phone rang. JD his night crew opener called and said the Bagel Bin was on fire.
The Bagel Bin is the only Kosher establishment this side of the Mississippi river, a burnt offering is sacrificed in the large rotating oven regularly. Scott's first impression was that these ingredients were probably smoking, or had fallen off the oven rack causing smoke. He was told his brother David was 10 minutes ETA and in route. Scott, was a little irritated he was woken from his limited sleep.
Not, 5 minutes later David was on the phone and said the Bagel Bin WAS on fire!
Scott, immediately started throwing on clothes yelling a few swear words as he put on double socks. I was following behind him putting on my own sock, saying I was going too.
"No, just stay here" Scott said.
I replied, I would just follow him if he didn't let me come along.
It was 6 degrees below 0 with a windchill of -30. I put on sweats, slipper boots, sweatshirt and jacket. I thought to grab my camera, but did not want to upset my husband (he HATES pictures).
We drove recklessly to 119th and Pacific Street. We arrived to find 8 firetrucks on scene.
Smoke was billowing from the roof and out the windows.
More firetrucks showed up, more firemen and women arrived. It was declared a two alarm fire. Soon, the fire hit the firewall, two businesses, ours and Invisible Fence were engulfed in flames. More fire trucks arrived and a fireman yells to me, "Mam, do you work here?".
"No, but my husband does" I said.
We quickly found Scott who was with his brother David and the other two evening Bagel Bin crew members.
The fireman was looking for the fire hydrants. We have had over three feet of snow and all of it was plowed against the parking lot curbs. None could be found! The fire dept. had to run hoses to Pacific Street!
Soon another call went out, a mayday. All firefighters were to evacuate the building and roof. The Assistant Fire Chief told us the roof collapsed SECONDS after the call was made.Another alarm was issued, a three alarm fire was now raging within the business that sustained our family. Our health insurance, employees incomes, financial stability, our entire physical substance was in flames. We were in shock.
My mother in law arrived, I took her to our car. We parked behind the fire chief. Before we knew it there were 50 firefighters, 12 trucks, rescue vehicles...I have never seen so many resources used at once in my life!
Our dear friends arrived with a camera (cuz the first thing Scott said to me as we arrived at the fire was, "did you bring your camera"?) our Elders Quorum President and Scott's great friend arrived as did hundreds of Bagel Bin supporters, customers and friends. Scott's brother Glenn came with tears on his cheeks.
The ice was unbelievable, three overhead ladders with hoses and probably 10 hand hoses fired back at that freezing cold fire. I burnt my cheeks while standing outside in the sub zero tundra.
It would be a long night, we gathered at the only open establishment, the bar, to share our shock with each other. We went home at 2am and then the calls came.
The calls started at 10:08pm and...well I just answered another text!
1 comment:
So glad you got these pictures! Look forward to reading the rest of the story.
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