Village Paper Up in Smoke

I didn't have the frame of mind this morning to jump off the bus to get photos of Village Paper closer to the time it burned, mostly because I didn't realize that it had happened. All I saw were dozens of firemen and surrounding streets blocked off. A quick search on NY1 said that there was an explosion this morning and then a fire in Village Paper. Later, these scary photos appeared on the web. This is the same block that had a pretty big fire about a year ago.

If you are in need of party supplies, this was the go to place. The aisles were crammed with everything from cards to placeholders to noisemakers to streamers. At Halloween the aisles were blocked by costumes and skulls. When a friend of mine looked at the devastation she said, "Oh my childhood is gone. I used to go in there with my little pennies to buy trinkets."

Since early this morning I have been hearing sirens outside constantly. The fire department seems to be very busy today. In other news, someone was reportedly shocked by rogue electricity from a grid or a manhole cover in the sidewalk on Morton Street. I can't find any official coverage of it, but that was the rumor this morning after firemen cordoned off the street.