unusual shabbat

[cellio]

This morning about half an hour into services the fire alarm went off. It's one of those newfangled piercing ones that you can't just ignore (I suppose that's the point), so we started to file out. The executive director met us in the hall and said "get your coats and go wait outside; it's a false alarm". After getting my coat I started to go back for the sefer torah but was deterred.

After about five minutes the director said it wasn't a false alarm after all (but no one was panicking either), so the fire trucks were on their way and we should probably go home. I suggested we try to relocate and continue the service. Someone else said she lives a couple blocks away, so we decided to go there. The director wouldn't let us back in for the sefer torah and siddurim, but eventually consented to let the rabbi and one other person go in. So the rest of us headed over to the house and they did that. (We ended up with about one siddur for every 2-3 people, but that was fine. I learned that I have more of the service memorized than I had thought.)

We did lose a couple people along the way, but most joined us and it was a pleasant experience. We were already reduced in number because the URJ biennial is happening this week, so we all fit in the living room. I read torah on the dining-room table, and people just moved around as needed to make that work. (I gave the hosts the aliyot -- seemed fitting.) After the service our hosts brought out wine for kiddush, and we also had food. Around then we got word that everything was fine back at the synagogue, so when we were done schmoozing a few of us carried everything back.

(If I understand correctly, something in the kitchen (I think a fridge) fried itself somehow. The kitchen was not in use at the time.)

Comments

[kmelion.livejournal.com]

Is your shul's Aron Kodesh fireproof?

[happyingreen.livejournal.com]

That is quite an unusual Shabbat experience - it sounds like everything is okay now.

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

We had a fire alarm shabbat once too a couple of years ago. A heater in the basement started smoking. People ran to pile the torahs out of the building, as if on cue!

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that it was only a minor incident, firewise.

Our local Young Israel had a catastrophic fire in 1994, so now when the fire alarm goes off, people act immediately. I was witness to this one year on Yom Kippur -- the alarm went off with about 30 minutes to go in Neila. We filed out in a very orderly fashion, waited until we'd gotten the all-clear (some kid had accidentally triggered the alarm), and then went back in. And even waiting 10 minutes for the all-clear, the chazzan finished and we blew the shofar right on time.

[cellio]

I think the one in the sanctuary is. The one in the room where we were holding this minyan definitely isn't. (The room itself is low-risk with its concrete and cinder-block construction (renovated basement), but still...)

[cellio]

Yup, all ok now so far as I know. (Maybe we're buying a new fridge. If that's the worst damage, that's fine!)

[cellio]

I'm not sure what would have happened had this been a real fire. This week (unusually) we had no bar mitzvah, hence no sanctuary service, so those doors were locked. Would the director and the rabbi (the only people present with keys) have allowed us to go in if they perceived non-immediate risk? I sure hope they would, but I don't know. (If it were to happen while a service was in progress, it would of course be much easier to send people out with books and sifrei torah.)

This brought to mind memories of the fire at Beth Shalom about 10-12 years ago. No one died getting the sifrei torah out but I have the impression that there was some unhappiness from the city ("you went back into a burning building for scrolls?" well, yeah). I don't know if that led to pressure on other synagogues should such a thing happen again. (That fire was before I was following local Jewish news, so I only knew what made the mainstream press.)

[cellio]

Did you take sifrei torah, machzorim, etc with you when you left?

And even waiting 10 minutes for the all-clear, the chazzan finished and we blew the shofar right on time.

I perceive that there's a fair bit of flexibility built into chazanut. :-)

[multislackerkim.livejournal.com]

Could the scrolls be stored in fireproof containers when not in use during a service?

[cellio]

What a great suggestion! I am going to ask the director about this.