It didn't start out with a lot of drama but things escalated pretty quickly and ended up with a firetruck with flashing lights pulling up in front of the store. At first, a customer came up to the front and told Rose, "There seems to be a lot of smoke in the back corner of the store." Then a few minutes later one of the people who works back in the deli rushed up and said, "You better call the store manager because there's a fire in the back of the store!" So Rose called Scott, the store manager, over the intercom. He came downstairs and went to the meat department to see what was going on. The front of the store was getting pretty smoky so Rose started looking around for a fire extinguisher. She was actually looking all over for it when someone pointed out that it was right in front of her. From there, as you might imagine, things turned into a circus pretty quickly. It was sort of a free-for-all for the cashiers up front--like kids in a high school class when there is a substitute teacher or like kids who had just been set loose at Disneyland.
Then fire trucks pulled up--that's right trucks, plural. Actually, first the fire police came then a fire truck came. As the fire truck pulled up in front of the store with flashing red lights turned on, we were talking really loud and laughing and joking around about how we might have to evacuate the store and how we might get out of work early (even though we knew the chances of that happening were slim to none). The volunteer firefighters (who all looked about 12 years old) came marching into the store fully decked out with all their firefighting equipment. Scott came up to the front and was like, "Did any of you guys call the fire department?" We all shook our heads and said none of us had called them. Scott was greatful they came and knew they were just doing their job but he didn't want to waste their time by having them come out to the scene where the fire had already been put out. The bottom line was that none of us were overly concerned that the store could burn to the ground at any minute.
Customers' reactions ranged from panic to indifference. One customer came through my line and she said, "Ummm, you do know there's a fire in the store, right?" Then she looked at each of us and said in a very serious (and slightly sarcastic) tone, "Isn't someone going to do something about that because my eyes are really starting to burn from all the smoke." I calmly told her that the manager was back there and he putting out the fire right now. She looked at me (very) skeptically, paid for her groceries, and ran out of the store awfully fast. Another customer asked if there was really a fire in the store. We said yes, there was and she got a freaked out look on her face and told her kids to run out to the car fast. Scott pointed out later that he thought it was funny that she was so concerned about the fire but that didn't stop her from staying in the store, shopping for her groceries, and going through the checkout line. Most customers were just mildly curious about where the fire was and what had started it. And just to address the obvious concern, of course fires are very dangerous and can spread very quickly so I don't want it to seem like it was something we all took too lightly. I think we just weren't too concerned because it was such a small fire that was contained pretty quickly.
Well, it turned out to be a small electrical fire in one of the meat cases. Rose brought the fire extinguisher and Scott remained totally calm and put the fire out quickly. Ah, just another day at the office...
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