Monday 1 October 2012

People watching tonight's fire almost as crazy as the blaze



Apparently my wife has no idea how to watch a fire and almost got attacked for it.

Unless you drove around Winnipeg with your eyes closed this evening you know there was a massive fire in the St Boniface area. Hundreds of Winnipeggers gathered anywhere they could get a good view.



I wasn't with my wife tonight but she happened to be driving in the St. Boniface area with our daughter and pulled into a street where a large mass of people were watching the smoke and fumes from a safe distance. There is something about a fire that grabs people's interest and curiosity and Cheryl wanted to see the blaze.

She pulled up behind another car and was watching from her car when a woman in the car in front of her got out and said "Turn your fucking lights out We're trying to watch the fire."  and then got back in her car. (I quoted this because Cheryl said this is exactly what the women said.)

Cheryl was totally shocked and stunned for a second and didn't put her lights out as she was planning on just looking for a few minutes and leaving. Well when her lights didn't go out immediately the man and woman in the car in front of her turned around a both gave her the finger with both of their hands.

So for pulling up on a public street and leaving her lights on Cheryl got four middle fingers. She didn't shoot the finger back but instead just put her hands up to the couple as to say- 'what the hell are you guys freaking out about.' This is where it got ugly.

The man in the car got out and approached Cheryl's car in a rage. Our two year old daughter was in the back seat so Cheryl threw the car in drive and got the hell out of there while the man continued screaming at her as she drove away.

When Cheryl got home and I talked to her she could not believe what she had just been through. She literally thought the man was going to attack her and she was mad and still pretty shook up.

Well I have news for the couple. This was a fire not a movie or concert. Cheryl had every right to pull up behind them and leave her lights on and for them to lose it the way they did was pathetic and sad but also scary. Had they asked her to turn the lights off politely she would have.

If she had not drove off how far would this guy have taken it? Was he planning to hit a woman with a toddler in the back seat?

I think for the most part we are safe in this city but when I head about people flying off the handle like this it makes me wonder.