We had a fire at work today. OK, it wasn't in my building, and as it turns out it wasn't even in a building owned by the school. It was in a private apartment building that's between two of our apartment buildings, and is about 50 yards from my office. I got to spend part of my lunch hour watching the proceedings, which involved a lot of smoke and many, many public safety vehicles.

There don't appear to have been any injuries, which is pretty surprising. In a building full of college students, you have to assume that at least a couple will be home and asleep at any given time. No word on the extent of the damage, but our students who live in there are being moved to on-campus spaces for the time being. I have a feeling they'll be there for a while.

Adding to the afternoon of craziness, an outbound Green Line trolley was stopped in the middle of the intersection about a half-hour ago, with a couple of police cars to keep it company. No idea if it broke down, hit someone, or contained a passenger of interest to John Q. Law, but it eventually got moving again.

I don't know if I really believe in the Rule of Three, but I may walk over to the Orange Line to go home. It's not the afternoon to tempt fate, apparently.