I have been listening to a little bit about the Fire fighters who lost their lives in a fire in Back Bay. I didn't know them or anything like that. But when I first heard about it the first thing that popped into my head was Ching Ming. I wonder what a fire fighter would think about that holiday. But then we do take precautions. You can only light your papers in a bin and because everyone is so careful around this activity which is so obviously a fire hazard... well I've never heard of a fire starting in Boston from this activity. I'm not sure what started the Back Bay fire but whenever you here of people dying from fire (the last time I heard something on the news had to do with a fireplace and some others were Christmas trees) it makes you freak out about certain Holiday traditions and their risks. Cooking is one of the more dangerous things. Doing your laundry in the dryer.
It just makes you remember how dangerous everyday things can be and how much more dangerous they would be if we didn't have trained firefighters like the two that lost their lives recently.
In Hong Kong in the 50's a lot of people used to live in wooden shanty towns. Then a fire wiped out the whole area. I don't know what started it but it was probably something simple and every day, but because of the buildings being shacks of wood and I'm not sure what they had for firefighters... anyway a tragedy can be a disaster. Back Bay is a historic type of neighborhood and a lot of the houses are old, and brick, and very close together. It would be easy for a fire to wipe out such a place without trained firefighters. Chinatown, which is close by, is the same way in terms of architecture and crowded back alleys. You never give it much thought until someone dies. Or maybe if you are a firefighter you think about it all the time.
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