DailyHeights

Hope you picked up your drop-off (15 lbs @ 60 cents/lb) this afternoon. PICTURED: Around 6:45 PM ET today, BATT CHIEF TRAVERS shines a flashlight down the basement access staircase. Minutes earlier, an FDNY cut open the padlocked grate with a chainsaw, sparks a-flyin’ (watch the video here!). These dramatic measures led gawkers to speculate that somebody was trapped downstairs. In fact, there was nobody to rescue. I think they were just trying to access the breakers so they could shut the power off. We talked to a fireman who said he wasn’t sure whether or not it was a dryer that caught on fire, but whatever it was, it got into the wall and spread to the second floor. Check out all the exciting details in this Flickr photoset.