Gristedes burned down.

A normal and refreshingly spring-like Tuesday and I'm coming home from attending a bike class at Time's Up (see earlier post). As I head out of the train station at Clark Street, all I can see is caution tape enveloping the whole of Henry Street from Clark Street down to Pineapple Street and Gristedes is completely dark across the way. My night vision isn't so good (without the aid of glasses/contacts) but I'm standing on the sidewalk and I can tell that all the windows are cracked. The sound of broken glass echoes in all directions and there are a bunch of men clearing up the glass and debris. The only vehicle parked on the other side is a giant truck with its backside gaping open and an equally huge dumpster. I am not alone in being aghast and stupefied by the scene in front of me. I hear a girl say, "I was just here three hours ago, what the fuck happened?!" to her friend as they head into the St. George's Hotel, the dorm facility located right next to the train station. I am wondering the exact same thing but there is no one around to tell me the answer so I head towards the beacon of light that is Peas and Pickles to find out from the kindly Korean owners. They tell me it was some electric malfunction -from further investigation online, it seems that the electric malfunction occurred in the deli area- that occurred around 6pm and which caused a fire that spread through out the store in a matter of 20 minutes! The fire trucks had come and the firemen were responsible for breaking all the windows in order to release the smoke. Thankfully there were no injuries! I headed home but not without chatting with someone else on the street who remarked, "Anything can happen in a day." I totally agree.

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