News and Views from Michigan

Fire at Benton Harbor Meijer store

I was there. For once I was somewhere that news happened. Of course I was looking at pudding at the time. That is my lot in life I suppose.

On Saturday January 21st, 2006 fires were set in Meijers. This was during their "Super Saturday Sale" so it was pretty packed. Some reports have stated as many as 15 seperate fires were set at the same time. All I know is that the people around me started to stare past me. At the time I remember thinking they were being rude staring at someone. Then I glanced over and the center of the store was filled with smoke and people running in with fire extinguishers.

Probably the most interesting part was that we kept shopping. The building we were in was obviously on fire and we kept shopping. Not one person I saw headed to the exit. I am not entirely sure what we were thinking. "Maybe we can check out before we die." Mob mentality I guess.

They then told us to leave. Which everyone did and no one panicked. A few people tried to take their carts with them (full of product of course) and were politely told to leave them behind.

Meijer personel handled it beautifully. They ran in with extinguishers and managed to keep it from going to far. It will be interesting to see if they can find who did it. I hope so.

posted by Hardcopi @ 5:15 PM