It was lunchtime, and I was walking back to work. I passed a bin that had some smoke coming out from it. I paused to look, expecting to see nothing much. The inside of the bin was on fire. Someone had obviously thrown a cigarette in that had lit some papers. I walked on, and was going to ignore it. I had, however, been reading the headlines in a newspaper window of the Brazil club fire where 200+ people had died. I had crossed road the road by this time, but with thoughts of fiery infernos, I crossed back over the road to the bin again - still on fire. What do people do when a bin is on fire? Do they call for a fire engine? Other people were walking past and were glancing at the bin, but did not seem unduly concerned.
I went in the charity shop the bin is outside of. They'll know what to do I thought they're a charity shop. Why I thought that charity shop workers would have some kind of important information on what to do in the case of fiery bins I'm not quite sure. I queued up patiently. 'I don't know if you know' I began 'but there's a bin on fire outside. I don't know if you want to ring someone'. The woman looked at me like I was mad 'Who do you think we should call?' she asked me. I shrugged and went back to work. The bin was still on fire.
