Hurricane Earl Live 10

We can now hear all kinds of emergency service vehicles. Fortunately they seem to be driving out of hearing range.

Not much point in running

Last night Jeannette and I were walking along Purdy's Wharf in the the Halifax harbour, a location that happens to be adjacent to a naval base, when we heard a loud announcement stating that the HMCS Fredricton was on fire. Troops were requested to muster immediately.

Given that both of us were familiar with the concept of Halifax explosion and aware that the explosion was caused by a the combination of fire and military vessels our first reaction should have been to vacate the area. Clearly standing around and watching a naval ship catch fire is not a particularly good idea.

Of course, instead of immediately making our way back to a location that wasn't completely open and from which the HMCS Fredricton wasn't visible we decided to take a seat on one the benches on Purdy's Wharf and see if we could figure out what was going on. At first the only thing that happened was that we were treated to another instance of the original announcement, confirming that something was up.

Amazingly, though I guess we were a little ways away, it wasn't immediately obvious that emergency crews were springing into action or that any mustering was taking place. Fortunately there was also no smoke to indicate that the fire was particularly large or spreading.

After a few minutes of what appeared to be complete inaction (as far as we could tell we were the only ones even remotely concerned about the whole thing) another announcement was made which suggested that everything was under control and the the situation had been caused by something or other shorting.

Though in the end nothing much happened, this brief flash of excitement did provide me with an opportunity to learn three things:

1) This blog, and my desire to fill space on a regular basis, has encouraged me to look for content in the worst circumstances. For instance, instead of trying to leave the site of a possible naval disaster I took a seat facing the source of a possible explosion hoping to see any excitement so that I could relay the details to our large, loyal, and discerning readership.

2 The Canadian Forces provide high-quality, information rich announcements. Even though I was on Purdy's Wharf I knew exactly where the problem was almost immediately and shortly thereafter I knew how the situation had been resolved. I was able to leave the site comforted with the understanding that had neither missed anything or that I would possibly have to run from a giant explosion.

3) From the outside it is damn difficult to see that anyone is engaged in responding to an emergency announcement at this naval base. As far as I could tell there was just as much action on the base before the announcement as there was immediately after. It was strange to hear such a shocking announcement and then see absolutely nothing happen in response. It almost felt like base was already empty and that there was no one there to respond to such an announcement (though I am sure that this is not the case). Actually, where the hell was the fire boat that I know they have? Wouldn't you expect such a piece of equipment to be deployed in such a situation?

Just what was needed before the G8 summit

According to CBC there has been an earthquake in Ontario. It seems that this has coincided with the final preparations for the upcoming G8/G20 summit that is to take place in Ontario. I am curious to know if this earthquake will have much of an impact on these final preparations or if other regions in Ontario are short on emergency service workers who have been shifted to Toronto to deal with the massive summit security operation.

Disaster day in Halifax

As previously mentioned, there was a relatively substantial apartment fire in Halifax's South end this morning. It turns out that at about the same time a water main problem was developing on Prince Street, only a few blocks away from the fire.

This afternoon, after checking out the fire, Neil and I made our way to Prince Street to see what was going on and how bad the damage was. Almost as soon as we reached Prince and Argyle it became clear that the repair job was pretty substantial. As we made our way down to Barrington it was clear that quite a number of nearby buildings suffered at least some flooding. I think that another problem that existed for some period of time was ice build-up on the roads and sidewalks in the area. Fortunately, by mid-afternoon not as much water was leaving the system so there was less water on the roads and sidewalks.

The clip below is a relatively uninformative shot of the repair work in progress. Behind the pile of rubble is a pretty big hole, which is presumably where the rupture happened.



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I guess I should also mention that there was apparently a flare up at the fire at some point this afternoon. When I returned from school at about 6:00 there were still all kinds of emergency vehicles with flashing lights going. Hopefully everything will be under control by tonight.

Close call

This morning, just a little while after 9:00 AM, my printer, without my involvement, seemed to turn itself off and on. Aside waking me up briefly, just long enough to go to the bathroom, I made my way back to sleep and didn't really spend much time thinking about what might have caused my printer to behave so erratically.

When I eventually woke up, about two hours later, one of the first stories I heard on CBC was about a fire in the South end of Halifax (which is where I live). At first I was quite interested as the reporter indicated that the fire was on South Street which runs from near where we live to Dalhousie, and beyond. They eventually mentioned the cross street and the name of an adjacent restaurant, neither of which registered with me, so I assumed that it was on some section of South Street not in the immediate vicinity of our apartment. I then let this fire story slip from my consciousness, aside from the fact that I decided to walk up South to go to school to try to figure out where the fire had taken place.

A little while later, shortly after Rebecca left, she raced back into the apartment to tell us that there was a rather large conflagration just across from our apartment. It seems that the name of the restaurant (Taj Mahal) and cross street (presumably Hollis) really should have registered as they are both visible from some of the apartments in our building.

I was then informed that my printer had turned on because the power had returned, after an outage of about 15 minutes. It was now obvious that the outage had been caused by the near-by fire. Everything started to make sense.

All three of us then decided to head out and see what was happening (and make sure that everything was under control). Fortunately, by the time we figure that there even was a fire, firefighting crews had been on the scene for hours. Amazingly, what we did see, even though there were about 20 fire trucks there, was smoke coming from one of the main doors.



We took a few rather unimpressive video clips of the scene. If these do anything they provide some sense of the scene after more of the flame had been extinguished, but before things had completely wrapped up.



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I guess it is good that my friend moved out of this building about 8 months ago. I really can't imagine how incredibly unpleasant it would be to have to deal with the consequences of a fire in one's building in the middle of Winter.

A further fire update

Below is a selection of short clips of the fire/smoke that I took at the same time as the photos from the previous post.

Sorry for the shakiness of the camera and the relatively grainy quality of the images. Unfortunately the sun made it a little hard to see exactly what it was I was doing as I was filming.



[Embedded Video]

More on the Halifax Fire

After making the last post I decided to head to Point Pleasant Park to see if I could get a better sense of exactly where the fire CBC was reporting on was, and how large it was.

Almost as soon as I started upon my trip I was able to see that the fire was certainly pumping out a fair bit of smoke. Actually, given what I know now what I thought were clouds were actually likely smoke from the fire. As you could likely figured out on your own, all of the dark stuff behind the grocery store is smoke.



As I continued towards the park the smoke from the fire continued to be visible, and that the source was across from the park became clearer. From the Young Avenue railroad bridge the smoke is visible.



Obviously once I was in the park and on the trails I had an even better view of the source of the smoke.



As I was approaching the beach I happened to run into two friends who had been on the beach watching the progression of things. They suggested that where I was planning on heading was a great place to get a sense of things. They were hoping that I might be able to provide them with a little more information on the source of the fire. Unfortunately, I didn't really have much more information than they did, though I had heard that at least a few houses had been lost.

As soon as I made it to the beach it was clear that there seemed to be at least two fires. One of the fires was directly across the water from the park. This fire appeared to be behind the a ridge, so the flames were not visible.

A second, larger, fire appeared to be further south. Again, this fire also appeared to be behind a ridge.

















I spent a few minutes on the beach watching the progression of things. One of the most noticeable thing was that there appeared to be a number of planes and helicopters flying around. Some of these were clearly being used as water bombers, others I presume were surveying the fire (and I suspect some may have been removing people given that they kept going up an down).









By the time I left it seemed that the fire directly across from me had either been controlled, or had started to burn itself out as there was much less smoke than when I arrived.

The second, larger, fire seemed to still be pumping out a fair bit of smoke and was receiving the most attention from the helicopters.

All in all, this is quite the fire and disaster. I really hope that they were able to evacuate everyone in time.

I thought I should also point out that when I was in Point Pleasant Park earlier this afternoon this is what the view looked like.

Halifax Fire

It seems that there is a massive forest fire in the Halifax region (Spryfield/Herring Cove), CBC Radio One is providing pretty extensive live coverage.

Unfortunately it seems that at least a few houses have been lost already.

Edit: I just heard one of my classmates interviewed on the subject.

A Few Quick Notes 166

-Today was another nice day, though a bit on the chilly side. My understanding is that such weather is not to hold, snow or some other form of precipitation has been predicted. This is rather unfortunate as just now the sidewalks are starting to clear and the snow disappear.

-I must now be 11/51 on this year's Roll Up the Rim contest. The decision to pick up my game that I made several days ago seems to have paid off. My win ratio has definitely started to improve. Hopefully I will be able to manage this level of intensity for the rest of the competition. If you are curious, my strategy is to play for more smaller prizes, such as coffees, rather than the big and rare prizes. So far this seems to be working.

-I was able to do some laundry yesterday. Once I started the process did I realize that I had less to wash than I expected. What caused this to be the case still baffles me, particularly as it seems that it was about the standard interval between washes.

-I am really having a hard time getting down to work. Though I have been trying all night, I have managed to make very little progress. Maybe if I take a walk I will be ready to work when I get back.

-A few days ago I heard an interview with George Saunders about his work, which tends towards satire. This motivated me to see if the library had any of his work, which they did. I was able to check out two of his books, one of which I completed that day. Generally I have been impressed and would consider looking into other of his works.

-A few days ago, at the Purim party, some of the guests noticed the 'take a book, leave a book' box and found some content that interested them. In class today someone gave me a book for the box to replace the one that he took. I am glad to see that this has finally worked in the way that it was supposed to, though it took much longer than I expected (but that may be because of the limited number of people that visit my apartment).

-A few days ago I planted some beans, peas, and peppers. While I am hoping for some action on the growing front before I depart, I don't know if this is actually going to happen. So far all three seed varieties have disappointed me, but it may be that I have not given them enough time to sprout.

-When I returned home from school today I found that the north-bound lane of my street was closed by a police car. At the end of the block I was able to see some more flashing lights, as well as a few at the end of the block to the south of my apartment. Fortunately, my apartment doesn't seem to be in any immediate danger.

I should note that this is all after there were two police car outside of the building to the south of mine. As these cars didn't have their lights on I assumed that there wasn't much of an emergency, though I am now wondering if something developed during the course of their visit.

A Few Quick Notes 152

-Today has been a somewhat overcast, damp day. Instead of nice forms of precipitation such as snow or hale, we received batches of rather unimpressive drizzle throughout the day. This drizzle was accompanied by temperatures just hovering slightly above zero, allowing for plenty of slush and water at each intersection.

-If I recall correctly, some snow removal was done in my part of town yesterday night, or certainly between last night and Saturday.

As I was operating under this assumption, I was somewhat surprised to hear the snow-removal procession moving my way this evening. More upsetting was that they decided to do this while I was trying to take a nap.

-Nithum and I have started the cupboard and closet emptying process that must be complete by tomorrow morning at 8:30. Though we have to stay out of the apartment for at least four hours after the treatment, they haven’t given us a precise time at which we might expect the treatment to occur, or some way of knowing when we might expect to be able to make it back into the apartment.

The particularly strange thing about the process is that they request that we don’t clean the treated surfaces for a month. This would seem to be a somewhat hazardous concept as they locations in question are where we store our food, plates, cups, and glasses. Maybe it is that the stuff they are using to keep cockroaches away isn’t all that poisonous.

-Last night I happened to notice all kinds of flashing lights at about 9:30 or 10:00 PM. Once I got up to survey the situation I learned that about four fire trucks were responding to some kind of situation at the large apartment building across the street from us. All kinds of people had exited the building and were standing on the front steps. Fortunately, after only a few minutes the investigation found nothing dangerous and the residents were given the all clear signal. What an inconvenience in the winter.

-Today I was introduced to a social tagging game that has been developed by the McCord Museum. Strangely, the goal of the project is to accumulate a wide variety of words to describe photos, yet points are given for common answers. This means that the best way to win is to supply the most obvious answers, though this may be completely contrary to what the project is hoping to collect. It seems a somewhat ill conceived concept, or that the game is promoting something contrary to the primary goal of the project.

-I guess in the very near future I might want to check out some of the preliminary Super Tuesday results.

A Few Quick Notes 135

-In the past few days the temperatures have really dropped. It seems that we are now at about -15, and are scheduled to stay in this range for at least another couple of hours. More importantly, we are scheduled to get our first substantial snowfall as of tomorrow afternoon. As I plan on working on school work at the dining room table I should have a pretty good view of the proceedings.

-There are a few fire trucks that have been in front of the building next to mine for some time now. As there doesn’t seem to be too much action and no new trucks have come in the past twenty minutes I feel that I can safely rule out fire as a possibility. Hopefully nothing too serious has transpired.

-On Thursday night Steven and I went to a talk by Oliver Sacks. In many ways it was exactly what I expected, neurological problems as they relate to perception and interaction with music. Unfortunately, I can’t really tell you too much about the talk as I seem to have fallen asleep for the middle section.

While question and answer sessions after talks are usually quite unpleasant this one was particularly bad. The first individual to ask a question attempted to show the breadth of his reading and depth of his intellect only to fall flat on his face. Unfortunately a few other also asked rather broad and pointless questions about the nature of music and creativity, something that clearly isn’t in Sacks’ area of expertise (and he deserves credit for willingness not to provide a phony answer). The other type of question, which I presume occur wherever Sacks’ talks, is the desire for an on-the-spot diagnosis for a friend or family member’s condition. Fortunately there was only one of this latter type of question as was totally inappropriate and impossible to answer given the circumstances.

-After the talk I went up to Thomson House for the Mustache and Cleavage Party. I was amazed to find that I was by no means the only one with a mustache. Also, several people showed up with cleavage in tow.

-Hopefully within the next few days I will be able to buy a low cost thermometer and be able to provide temperature readings from our apartment. At the moment I am sure that my room is a shockingly low temperature (so cold that I am using my windowsill as fridge substitute. I may have to try to warm things up once Nithum returns as I know that he likes things a little warmer than I do.

-Several days ago my alarm clock crapped out. It seems that the radio function and the projection function still work, but that the clock and alarm components are completely non-functional. This has meant that I have been reliant on my iPod and speakers to function as an alarm clock. The problem with the set-up is that I seem to sleep through the single beep about 1 out of 2 time. For instance, my nap this evening went from about half an hour to an hour and a half without my even knowing what was going on. Things like this can’t happen too many more time. Maybe I will have to get some motivation and try to buy a new clock tomorrow.

Gaz leak on St. Laurent

Earlier this afternoon I was walking along St. Laurent, making my way over to meet my father and uncle at their hotel. Just a block or so north of Sherbrooke I noticed that I was walking next to a water mane construction site and that there was a very loud noise coming from the pit. Accompanying the hissing was a strong smell. Though the employees didn’t really seem too agitated, I quickly figured out that this must be a gas leak.

As this idea was forming in my head a fire truck appeared on the scene. As I proceeded south several other fire trucks appeared. Still nothing in particular was being done to evacuate the area or prevent people from walking right next to the construction site.

When I reached the hotel I mentioned that I thought there might be a gas leak on St. Laurent. After a few minutes of preparation we headed out and approached the area. We very quickly saw that the street was now closed to traffic and that there were even more fire trucks. We also saw that there was a gas truck on the scene.

Though the street was closed to traffic pedestrians could still get pretty close to the action. So, as it was on our way, we walked towards the heart of the scene. It soon became clear that this was a pretty major operation and that for some reason the fire trucks were pumping water and had hoses out. A pretty large amount of water was flowing down the sides of the streets, though we weren’t able to see the source.

Maybe later tonight I will try to check some news sources and get official confirmation that the construction crew struck a gas line while doing routine work.

Anyway, it is likely that you read it hear first.