Yesterday as I sat infront of my computer working diligently, grooving to the trance that filled my ear drums (I love you www.di.fm), I noticed a faint ringing sound in the background which I thought was part of the music. It sounded pretty damned good too! As the music changed, the faint ringing in the background did not. This prompted me to remove my headset and notice that the faint ringing was infact a loud fire alarm.

Working in the LandMark 2 towers here in Kelowna, we often have firealarm tests, however, I do not recall receiving any test notifications. So, I grabbed my keys and proceeded to exit the building along with everybody else. It wasn't until we got outside that people looked up and started to see smoke. Within two (2) minutes, large amounts of black smoke could be seen and three to five (3-5) minutes after that, fairly large flames! I took a couple pictures on my handy camera phone to capture the moment.

The response from the Kelowna Fire Department was amazing. Within a few moments three firetrucks were on the scene as well as two ambulances. Firemen cordoned off the area with "Fire line do not cross" tape that you expect to only see in movies and shortly thereafter, claps and cheers came from onlookers as the fire was put out.

Final Score - KFD: 1, Fire: 0. Castanet.net has some other user-contributed pictures of the fire in their Gallery, as well as a picture of my car, which I think was an attempt to take a picture of the fire truck behind it.