Late this night when we should have been getting to bed...

So, uh, the building across the street from us is on fire...which is (one of) my (many) worst nightmare(s). 

I think about it every time I get in the elevator and see the sign that says, "In case of fire use stairs. Do not use elevator" because we...live on the 40th floor. 

And I just can't help but think of what a nightmare it would be to navigating all those stairs in order to evacuate. I mean, we'd do it...but it would be with screaming, howling children...so not very fun.

I assume the screaming and howling because, well, today when we arrived at the metro station a train was already at our stop and getting ready to head off. We kind of hesitated about whether or not we could make it on, but ultimately decided we couldn't—not with our party of seven!—so we collectively decided to wait for the next trains (they literally come every six minutes so it's typically not a big deal to wait).

Oh, except that Benjamin missed the memo about waiting for the next train and hopped on board! 

The doors closed, and off he went.

Phoebe immediately started wailing. 

"We will never see Benny again!" she cried. "He's gone forever!"

"He's not gone forever," I assured her. 

"Oh, look—he just texted," Andrew said and then read: "Sorry! What should I do? Get off at the next station or keep riding to Legtafiya?"

"Just stay on until Legtafiya. We'll meet you there," Andrew told him. 

So that's what Benjamin did and we found him waiting for us when we arrived and all was well. But we told the little kids that if they ever got separated from us like that to just get off at the very next station (no matter where we were headed) and we would come find them there. Do not try to catch the train back to us. Do not try to get to the final destination. Just get off at the very next stop and wait. 

We really need to teach them our phone numbers here...perhaps that'll be a fun activity for tomorrow!

Anyway, that's how I know that Phoebe would immediately lose her cool if we had to evacuate the building...and carrying a frantic Phoebe down forty flights of stairs really just doesn't sound awesome. 

Anyway...

From our limited research, the building on fire seems to be an office building, not a residential building, so that's good because it means there won't have been as many people inside. 

But there are dozens of emergency vehicles outside. 

We really weren't entirely sure what was going on—there have been firetrucks and ambulances and police cars and everything all whirring about the block...we're hearing more sirens all the time—until I spotted embers spitting out the side of the building. 

I took Benjamin, Zoë, and Alexander downstairs to gawk at it from the sidewalk (along with many other hotel guests). Miriam graciously stayed upstairs to be with Phoebe. Andrew is at the gym. 

It's possible the children will never fall asleep.

(News source; and the Ministry of the Interior has announced that it is contained as of 11:30 PM—they're still obviously working over there, but we can't see embers from our window anymore so I'm sure it has calmed down some)

Edited to add:

Blogger wouldn't let me put pictures up earlier (it simply wouldn't upload anything), so here is the view out our window:

Here is the view from the street:

Here is the announcement that the fire had been contained:

And here are some pictures we took the morning of September 10: