I was at school Friday morning to finish correcting exams and to turn in final grades. Got that done by 830am. Headed over to Honors to meet with a student at 9am and review student final grades and gpa's. About 11am, it was quiet, so I popped onto nbc4.com (as I sometimes do) to see the top stories and check out the weather.

One of the top four stories said "Fire Reported At Glen Echo Park." I screamed. It hit me that it did not say "Glen Echo" (the town), but instead said "Glen Echo Park." The article said a fire had started in a "large utility storage building," but it wasnÕt clear what storage building. I was hoping it was not our construction shed. I looked at the pictures that were with the article. It was hard to figure out exactly what the pictures were of. I looked through the pictures a second time----hoping that they meant one of the sheds up by the trolley, and NOT our construction shed. While looking through the pics a second time, I recognized the Irish flag that is at the pub by our shed. After that I could figure out that the other pictures were of the ladder going to the roof of our shed and the pics WERE of our construction shed as "the shed on fire."

I immediately ran to my other office to get my cell phone to call Stan to find out about the extent of the fire and damage. I got through to himÑhe said his office was "a complete meltdown" from the fire.

I started calling the construction crew to tell them "there's been a fire at the shop" and that Stan's office was a "complete meltdown." I talked to Debbie, left a message for Peter, talked to Jay, left a message for Steve (on all three of his phones), left a message for Eve, and left a message for Corey. I had to go to the shop. I called Debbie and Jay back and told them I was hitting the road to get to the shop. I called my boss (who knows about my Saturday construction life) and told her this was a family emergency -- a fire at the shop -- and that I was leaving work to go there. She said she understood and to go. I also called Allen (in from Atlanta), and told him to meet me at the shop.

I hit the road to fly home first to pick up my dance clothes for the Friday Night Dance. Right after got back into my car with my dance backpack, I got Stan's message inviting me to come pull non-burned items out of the shop if I wanted to. I flew back inside again to put on my construction clothes. I got to the shop at 130pm.

All the fire engines were gone, and Stan had begun to pull tools and things out of the shop already. I walked into the shop and started crying. What I could see of Stan's office back in the corner was just a charred blob. The ceiling in the shop was a mess -- insulation was just hanging from the ceiling. All the lights had burst and the floor was covered with broken glass, dust, and sheetrock chunks as well as stuff that had been thrown out of the way by the firefighters. Surprisingly, the main room of the shop with the big tools was smoky and wet but not burned (the three tier pen and scissors holder on the right was filled with water, the signs on our foul-weather locker were hanging askew), and the "living room" off to the side was smoky and basically dry.

Over the next few hours, Allen, Peter, Debbie, Jay, and Steve all arrived at the shop, to be there. Everyone mobilized and, for many of us, left work early to get to the shop to be there for support. We managed to cart a lot of stuff ---- tools mostly, we got our creek tools out for use the next day for a regular Saturday creek construction day, and some photos ---- out of the shop before it got shut down for 48 hours because of the fumes.

----Lindsey
    May 23, 2006