The Express is NOT on fire


Kim Brooks
Babbling Brooks Column
By: 
Kim Brooks
Express Editor

      I have never jumped out of my bed so fast in my life. You would have thought the Monticello Express office was on fire or something…

     Which takes me to my story…

     Just minutes after midnight on Friday July 7 and Saturday, July 8 I received a text message. I wasn’t quite in that Zen sleep mode yet, but I hesitated to check my cell phone.

     You see, in November 2012, I learned my lesson and now I always keep my cell phone on as loud as the volume will go. Nov. 28 was the date of Monticello’s downtown fire, which occurred in the very early morning hours. Several people were texting me about this devastating fire right outside my apartment, literally. I didn’t hear these text messages because my phone was turned down. I pretty much missed the entire downtown fire, something I have never been able to live down.

     So about a few minutes after I received this most recent text message I decided to check it. (There are two reasons one receives text messages in the middle of the night: life or death and the person texting was inebriated.) Our publisher and member of the Monticello Fire Department was the one who sent the text. The Spensleys were on vacation.

     Anytime the MFD are called out for a fire, each member of the department is not only paged, but they receive text messages with the details of the fire. Despite being out of town, Mark received that text.

     Perhaps he read it too quickly, but it stated that there was a structure fire on Grand Street in Monticello. The Express is located on Grand Street, E. Grand Street.

     So, Mark texted me “Express on fire.”

     That’s when I jumped out of bed. I read the text again to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating. I grabbed my cell phone, keys and camera, threw some footwear on, and ran across the street. I looked toward the Express from E. First Street and could see smoke and a glow in the sky. I also ran into the Jitney. (Don’t judge me here.)

     Obviously the Jones Country Dispatchers knew there was a fire in Monticello because they sent out the fire department, who all received text messages. But when you’re suddenly jolted from sleep saying your work office is on fire, your mind doesn’t work properly.

     So I ran into the Jitney and told them to call 9-1-1 because the Express was on fire. And, they did.

     But as I walked through the downtown pocket park and took one look at our office building, I didn’t see any sign of a fire.

     Then I ran around the office; no such fire.

     I spotted a bright glow coming from W. Grand Street behind Java Jones. The fire was on W. Grand, not E. Grand.

     The sense that our office could have been on fire is the same feeling, for me, like my apartment could have been on fire. My first thought was, “How will we do the newspaper on Monday?” And, “If I try to notify anyone else from work, will they answer their phones after midnight?”

     Fortunately for the Express, our office remains. Unfortunately for Gary and Keith Wernimont, their house that stood at the corner of W. Grand and Chestnut St. stands no longer.

     And three days later, my blood pressure is slowly going back to normal… 

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