Fire, fire!

I was walking down the street this morning when I smelled something burning. I looked up, expecting to see smoke pouring out of a nearby building. But there was nothing. I looked around, expecting smoke to be coming out of a storefront. But again, nothing. Then I followed someone else's gaze and saw a smoking trash can with flames shooting out of it.


I'm sorry for the poor quality of the picture, but I was running in the other direction. I kept expecting the trash can to spontaneously combust or go shooting 50 feet in the air. But all the other passersby were walking at a leisurely pace, peering in the bin and then going on their way. Am I the only one who saw the news report of the smoking Jeep in Times Square that turned out to be a car bomb? Has living in 21st Century NYC hyper-sensitized me or made me properly cautiously aware of my surroundings?