Drama!

There was a bit of high excitement in my 'hood last Sunday around midnight.

Everyone's favourite Muslim joint (getting a bit too popular for its own good, really: it's just over the road from MAO Live House, so the bands and their groupies regularly pack the place out pre- and post-show) nearly burned down. Well, the chuanr stand at the front did, anyway.

The road was closed for a while, but I didn't see a fire engine in attendance. Luckily, somebody was able to dump large quantities of water on the blaze to snuff it out. The initial response, though, seemed to be dangerously, er, casual. A fire like that in the hutongs might quickly engulf the entire block if allowed to take hold. One young chap had climbed up on to the roofs, I assume, to check whether any sparks had spread up there.... and he was for a while dancing around very agitatedly as if to suggest there was a rooftop fire as well; but it seems not.

I was seriously concerned for a while because I thought I'd seen flames coming out of the front door (though perhaps they'd merely been beside the door) and the smoke was so thick that it was impossible to see anything inside. Nor was there was any sign of the laoban outside (a very sweet guy who once chased me down the street to apologise for having inadvertently overcharged me by a few kuai). Fortunately, everyone had got out safely, and the fire seems not to have spread inside.

They'd managed to clean the place up enough to reopen the following evening (although it's still smelling a bit smoky in there). The only evidence of the previous night's close call was the anxiousness with which laoban was supervising the chuanr boy as he got to work at the replacement barbecue stand.

I know, I know - pretty trivial compared to the CCTV fire the other week; but we don't have a lot to keep us entertained around here.