the day the tanning salon burnt down...

I live in a small town.

Small enough that when a business is on fire, everyone and I mean EVERYBODY comes out to watch.

I was grading papers wasting my life on Facebook today, and a few pictures popped up of black smoke coming out of a building in the center of our town.

And for some odd reason, I have a strange fascination with things like this.  I know, weird.  And if we are being honest, I also have an odd fascination with polygamy, school shootings, and TV prison shows.  Glad I got that out. 

My wonderful husband, knowing that I am fascinated by things like this, offered to drive me down to the BIG SCENE so I could see what was happening.  We had to go into town anyways that day, and since our small town is pretty much two intersecting roads, we were going to go by anyways.

Fast forward 4 hours... we are back home now.  Yes, we ended up watching for FOUR hours.  

It went from being contained to one business, 

to spreading to the ones next door,

to taking over the whole building.

Apparently, it started in a Dessert Sun Tanning salon.  A facial bulb EXPLODED while a girl was tanning.  It started smoking a bit, and she went out to the front.  The girl at the front came back to look, and it was on fire.  And because NO ONE had a brain knew how to use a fire extinguisher or thought about cutting the power, it quickly spread to the rest of the store.  And because the store is connected to a bunch of other ones... we lost a hearing aid shop, cigar shop, travel agency, beauty supply shop, and 

my favorite coffee shop.  The only decent drive through, my favorite place to meet up with friends, and a central hub in our town - gone.  

I saw more people today out there that I knew then I do going to church on a Sunday!  So that is the story of the day the tanning salon burnt down.