Fire on the N-Judah Line!

While taking a late afternoon walk on Irving Street, I caught a good old-fashioned car fire right at Irving and 9th right as the trusted N was pulling up. It started out as an awful smoky smell coming from a passing car, and moved quickly to a bigger, smokier fire, and finally shooting flames out of the car.
Now, if I was a true “blogger” I suppose I would have used my super duper camera phone, or even a digitial camera to capture the drama, but I have neither, so all I can say is that the sheer amount of smoke being pumped out by this fire, coupled with the shooting flames made for some drama. Fortunately, no one was hurt, although the passengers were a bit shaken up. As I walked by the burnt out hulk of the BMW, I could see why.
What made more more drama, however, was the totallly bizarre 911 response. I tried calling on my cell, and I can only assume that because others saw the problem and called in as well, that must have been why my call didn’t even go through. I spoke with one of the owners of the Irving St. Market (one of my two favorites on Irving St.) and he had called three times, without getting through. Many other residents expressed frustration at their problems calling 911 as well.
It makes one wonder, if there were a bigger emergency, what would happen? Now we were fortunate los bomberos de San Francisco arrived when they did, but all I could wonder is why it is we have so many posters asking for 911 operators to apply for the gig, and why it is we have so many questions about our disaster preparedness chief, Annemarie Conroy.
Another day, another drama on the N-Judah Line.