So, was working at Sweetbay tonight and had a very interesting time. The power went out, smoke was pouring out of the liquor store, the whole store was evacuated, and six fire engines showed up before it was all over. Don’t worry, I’m still alive.

Actually, it wasn’t as bad as all that… Around 9:30 or so, the power went out and it was dark for about five seconds before the backup generators kicked in. All the lights outside were still dark, but we had power to our registers and dim lights overhead, so business went on as usual. I joked with the customers about finding their way around the store, but everything seemed to be all right. Around 10, I saw fire trucks pulling up to the store and one of the service leaders told me we would be evacuating. It was hilarious though because the customers didn’t want to leave and kept coming up to the registers to be rung up. I rung up one more person and then we made the customers leave before we did, as the firefighters came in the store. We stood outside for about half an hour, keeping our eyes on the propane tanks and wondering what in the world was going on.

Well, we found out that when the power went out, an AC unit in the liquor store blew and eventually started smoking(we could smell it from outside). And that was the whole story…it must have been pretty bad because when we went back in the store, there was lots of smoke in the liquor store. But no fire. So the fire trucks went home, the store stayed closed…and we got to clean up. Oh joy. So, no exciting ten-feet tall flames or anything like that. Still, I got to stand around doing nothing for an hour. And while I was there, some of my neighbors came by and called my parents, since they knew I’d be working then. So my dad came over to make sure I wasn’t dead(since they had told him, “There are firetrucks everywhere but we don’t see James at all!”

So there’s the story of the Great Sweetbay Fire of ’07. Except it wasn’t so great. And it wasn’t really a fire. Meh, that sounds too cool though.

Ok, work tomorrow, so goodnight!

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