When Shaw resident Helena Andrews entered U Street haunt Marvin last Saturday night, she could smell that something was up. “When we walked in, you could obviously smell smoke,” says Andrews. “We said, ‘What, are they barbecuing up there or something?’”

Despite the stench, Andrews and pals decided to stick around, order drinks–“white Chimay,” says Andrews–and hang out in the packed bar. “We’re not the only people they let in after it started to smell like smoke,” says Andrews. “And it really smelled like smoke.”

Andrews estimates she was in the spot for “about fifteen minutes” before Marvin’s manager, Sheldon Scott, “came in from outside and said, ‘We need everybody to leave, we’re closing down.’” At that point, says Andrews, “Nobody took it seriously. Everyone kept drinking.”

Says Scott, “We stopped serving when we first realized there was a potential problem.” Later, when staff failed to locate the smoky source, “we decided to evacuate,” he says. “Some people left. Some had to be directed to leave . . . and some people wanted to know more about what was going on.”

“They never shouted outright, ‘There’s a fire, get out,’” says Andrews. “We overheard management saying, ‘We don’t want to yell “Fire” because we don’t want to cause chaos,’” she recalls. “They were not effectively communicating the situation.”

Scott says that management let patrons know that the situation was “a potential threat,” but did not elaborate on the problem. “We weren’t sure what it was at that point,” he admits.

After attempting to get patrons to leave for several minutes, says Andrews, Marvin’s staff “got all crazy about it and went bipolar . . . people started scrambling to close out their tabs. Then Sheldon started shouting, ‘Stop telling people to close up their tabs!’ It was chaos.”

When the building was finally evacuated, Scott says, the fire department was able to locate the source of the smell: a few smoldering cigarettes that had accumulated between the planks of the rooftop deck.

But not before Andrews had finished her drink. “We had literally just gotten our drinks of white Chimay!” she says. “They were humongous. We were downing our glasses. They were trying to kick us out, but we had just gotten our drinks, and we were going to finish them. And we did.”

Dude(tte),

Just so you know:

Its flesh grows colder.

Dude,

When I exited my modest basement apartment this morning to find this melted hunk of plastic accompanied by a glorious array of charred, rotting filth adorning my sidewalk, I thought, “Hey, that actually looks pretty sweet”:

I also thought, “That beauty is going to be here for fucking ever.” How am I expected to dispose of that thing, dude? Put it in my other trash can?

That’s some trash can-nibalistic bullshit, dude.

Sincerely,

Amanda Hess

Many!

Here’s a pic snapped by fire department media guy Alan Etter at a fire yesterday morning on Morris Road SE:

NB: We’re just playing, firefolk: You’re America’s heroes.

In a fine Washington Post rundown, D.C. Fire Chief Dennis L. Rubin went before the D.C. Council and got hammered over the sexual misconduct allegations among his ranks. He refused to give up any details other than, yeah, there’s a real potential that some of it might be true.

The Post wrote: “When a reporter sought further explanation of Rubin’s comments during a break in the hearing yesterday, the fire chief said he was referring to ’sex for overtime,’ but he did not say that during the hearing.”

I love his phrasing: Sex for overtime. Thank you Chief Rubin for introducing this nugget to our world. It won’t be forgotten anytime soon.

Explaining why he can’t talk about the sex for overtime was easy. After all, it’s still under investigation. But he had serious problems explaining what is already known about the racial disparities in discipline cases. The Post reported that Rubin provided stats that plainly show that “African Americas were the subjects of 80 percent of the department’s discipline cases in fiscal 2007. Whites composed 15 percent, and Hispanic personnel 4 percent. The numbers were similar in the two previous fiscal years”

Rubin would only say that the numbers concerned him.

Great. Thanks for your concern.

Denzel Washington’s opening scene in American Gangster has him pouring gasoline over some guy, lighting him up, and then walking away. I hate to sound like the old woman I think I am, but it’s not all that entertaining when you realize the horror that unfolded on Saturday at Good Guys. Police initially said the manager there, who suffered burns on more than 60 percent of his body, was not expected to live. The disgruntled asshole who walked to the Chevron on Wisconsin, bought the gas, lit the bouncer on fire, and walked away, has not been found.

Police told me today the strip club’s manager is still hanging on and the phone message at Good Guys says girls and patrons will be allowed back in later this week, but there’s litle doubt the bouncer has a long, scary road ahead of him. And unlike Yvette Cade, the D.C. area woman also burned on over 60 percent of her body after her estranged husband walked into her place of work and doused her with gas, the strip-club bouncer probably won’t get invited to sit on Oprah’s couch.

This particular crime is particularly hienous. For a refresher, plumb the City Paper’s recent archives and re-read Dave Jamieson’s Pulitzer-worthy story about the D.C. arsonist. And if you’re still not convinced, ask my dad. His father died several days, this was in the pre-burn-unit era, after a gas leak exploded. Call me Andy Rooney if you want, but I just don’t get why this shit should be made sexy in a movie trailer.

Two D.C. firefighters were injured when the roof collapsed in a raging fire at 2627 Adams Mill Road, a condo building that was almost certainly destroyed this morning. Things could have gone worse, of course, since no residents were hurt or killed, but things could have decidedly gone better. But don’t worry, folks. Jim Graham is on it.

The councilmember, who lives around the corner at the Ontario, got the call around 2:30 a.m., about an hour after D.C. Fire and EMS got it, and, per his usual, was at the scene shortly thereafter to assess things. By 10 a.m. he was ready to sum up: D.C. has crappy infrastructure. Well, to be fair, he did not say “crappy.” What he said to me this morning was “ancient,” but what he meant is crappy. To fight a four-alarm fire, you need a good amount of water pressure, something the 8- and 12-inch lines running under Adams Morgan can’t really provide. So firefighters were forced to line hose all the way from Connecticut Avenue, where hydrants are hooked into 20-inch lines, across Ellington Bridge, down the length of Calvert Street and around the corner to Adams Mill–some 2,000 feet of hose–which consequently closed all those well-traveled streets, as well as the intersection at 18th and Columbia.

While that was happening, flames powered through the red-tiled roof of the building, which has roughly 30 units, according to Graham. Residents of 2627 Adams Mill and those in the buildings on either side were evacuated; the Red Cross was called in. The two injured firefighters were hit by falling debris and possibly went though roof; at least one, says Graham, had to pass directly through the fire in order to get out. Another one had to climb down two strung-together ladders: The 45-foot one firefighters had on hand wasn’t long enough.

“A four-alarm fire is unusual,” Graham said, “but we have to be prepared for the unusual. This is a warning for us.” Next up: Graham vs. WASA.

Yesterday, the D.C. Fire Fighters Association—the union representing members of the District fire department—announced it was asking the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority to pay the city $900,000 to cover the costs of inspecting more than 10,000 city fire hydrants.

Good idea, but how come it’s the union asking—not, say, fire Chief Dennis Rubin?

Dan Dugan, the union’s president, says he was forced to take the lead on the issue because negotiations between WASA and the department over paying for hydrant inspections had stalled. He doubts that WASA General Manager Jerry N. Johnson is interested in making a deal. “This guy’s all fluff,” Dugan says. “When it comes down to signing the [agreement] to make it all happen, he doesn’t want to sign it.”

Dugan says the dollar amount came from a source with knowledge of the negotiations between WASA and the fire department.

An Aug. 30 closed-door meeting ended without an agreement, but both department spokesperson Alan Etter and WASA spokesperson Michele Quander-Collins say that negotiations are ongoing, with a another meeting likely before the end of the month.

Quander-Collins says Dugan has no basis to make any demands. “He’s not part of the discussions,” she says. “I’m not gonna make him part of the discussions now.”

There are fewer smells better than a crackling campfire in the woods, fewer pleasures more distinct than a pitched tent, a cold beer, and conversation. And there are even fewer inventions as genius as the humble pie iron.

Although my fiance and I recently acquired as a gift a fancy camping stove, I’m not entirely convinced we need it. The possibilities with a pie iron—two cast-iron squares, roughly the size of a piece of bread, hinged at the top and attached to long handles—are awesome to contemplate. With this one primitive piece of equipment, some wood, a couple of ingredients, and a little patience, you’ve got every meal covered: breakfast (try store-bought biscuit dough with cheese and a slice of turkey stuffed in the middle), lunch (some nutty bread, a slice of Swiss and a marinated Portobello) and dinner, the always-reliable pizza pocket (bread, sauce, cheese, and whatever else you like). Apply cooking spray to your iron, stack your ingredients, close it up, and stick it in the fire. That’s it. A few minutes later, you can flip out a neat, toasty package encasing simple ingredients, made melty and smoky from open-fire cooking.

Pie irons are sold in most camping stores, although I’ve never bought one. Pizza pockets were, I think, my first solid food as a child and the pie iron (a Tonka toaster) I inherited has been in my family for 30 years or more.

But if you don’t have one, don’t sweat it. Just get outdoors. Three-day weekends with near-perfect weather are too rare to sit inside your air-conditioned apartment. Camping in Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania is super fun…and close!

Laborers on Monday continued pulling apart and removing what structures remained inside the charred end of Eastern Market. Their work felt, on some level, felt like the removal of dead bodies. And why not? You can indeed have a relationship with a small business that feeds you good things.

More pics after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Despite the news that the Georgetown Boys & Girls Club might be sold, the staffers at the Jelleff branch have reached out to a facility facing a more uncertain future: the Georgetown public library.

Bob Stowers, the branch’s director, says that library officials have called him to see about annexing the library’s now-homeless children’s programs to his facility. “I am going to do everything I can to make it work,” he says, adding that the relocation plan may include the library taking over some part of the branch’s parking lot.

Monica Lewis, spokesperson for the D.C. Public Library, says nothing formal has yet crossed her desk concerning this arrangement. She does note that others are jumping in to help out. Today, the fire department announced that it, too, wanted to get familiar with the works of J.K. Rowling, saying that it would make some room at a nearby fire house to host children’s programs.

Lewis says there are plans to repurpose a bookmobile as well. The mobile has room for roughly five computers, equipped with WiFi, as well as a small collection of books. No word yet, Lewis adds, on where the mobile will be idling. “We hope within a few blocks of the current Georgetown library,” she says. The Jelleff branch is a block away.

And not to be outdone, the Washington Conservation Guild announced today [PDF] that it will be donating proceeds from a fundraiser to help preserve materials damaged by the fire. No matter what, the guild has the other orgs beat in the charity sweepstakes—they were there first. Guild members were able to get a freezer truck and painting conservator to the scene as the library was still smoldering.

For those that need a little Preservation 101: Sarah Stauderman, a Guild board member, explains the use of a freezer truck this way: “Freezing is typically what we do with paper-based materials when they’ve been exposed to water. If you leave something that’s wet out, mold will grow on it….Freezing gives you the time to get together your resources, to develop a plan of triage.”

D.C. fire officials are reporting that two of the closest hydrants to the Georgetown branch library were out of service when the majestic building went up in flames yesterday, ruining collections of precious and irreplaceable material. It’s not clear at this point if firefighters could have put out the blaze more quickly with a full complement of hydrants. But one thing is for sure: Dry hydrants are not a secret among those whose job it is to rush to fires.

Last September, we did a story about the phenomenon. The piece discussed a fire in a Northeast rowhouse that was surrounded by dead hydrants.

From the story: [A]s Lt. L.A. Matthews of Engine 21 in Adams Morgan says, “Even one [inoperable hydrant] is too many, especially if it’s in front of my house.”

Matthews says that some old-timers at the department have so little faith in the reliability of the city’s fire hydrants that they keep mental maps of swimming pools in their service areas to tap in case a hydrant fails. In addition to providing peace of mind, proximity to fire hydrants has financial benefits. Insurance companies typically vary their rates depending on the home’s distance from a hydrant.

• Ben’s Chili Bowl?
• that strip club in Petworth?
• the Shrimp Boat?
• Rock Creek Park [it's kinda dry right now]?

[We know this isn't funny, but it's just that, well, the burning of Eastern Market and the Georgetown Public Library has led this office to get to speculatin'. These things come in threes, you know.]

Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells says it looks as though Eastern Market’s facade will remain salvageable.

“This really was built as the Rolls-Royce of construction at the time,” he says. “There’s no reason that we’re going to lose this building.”

ADDENDUM, 5:08 P.M.: Now the feds are getting in on the act. From a press release sent by Fenty’s office this afternoon:

Kerry Pushes for Eastern Market Business Loan Assistance

WASHINGTON – Today Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Chairman of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, pledged his support for ensuring economic assistance to the small businesses impacted by today’s devastating fire in historic Eastern Market.

“Eastern Market has been a thriving example of how small businesses can be a force for economic development,” said Kerry. “The sense of community created by this Washington landmark reminds me of the energy in Boston’s Faneuil Hall Marketplace. Faneuil Hall burnt down in 1761 but was rebuilt a year later and Eastern Market will also recover from today’s devastating fire. I stand ready to help these small businesses rebuild and get back on their feet quickly.”