The same black, thick smoke again, as just ten days ago.
Not having checked the source of the smoke, I’m assuming it’s houses burning again. This will serve as another argument to those who claim that the government uses the fires to pursue its relocation plans for parts of Sayyeda Zeinab. But I remember Masr el Youm running a full-page report on the dangerous trade in gaz bottles, which is scandalously unregulated.
Update: The smoke is already gone; maybe someone just made use of the holiday to get rid of some waste?
Is that Sayyeda? Looks more like Gamaliya or Darb al-Ahmar… Perhaps the Azhar park has burst into flames or more likely Manshiet Nasr beyond. In Baghdad we always had to figure out if the distant plumes were from explosions or the even more common practice of burning garbage. I reckon that could well be a garbage fire in a poor neighborhood ill-served by the city’s sanitation department.
Got me. I have the habit of calling Sayyeda whatever I see from my balkony.
It looks like Darb al ahmar to me.
Working at the top of the flimsiest skyscraper in Cairo, I saw more than my fair share of these fires.
During my first few weeks in the office, the TV crew came into the text section a few times to point at the smoke from the window and then leave in a hurry. So, I rushed out of the office the next few times I saw smoke wafting over Cairo to go investigate the sources. But it all turned out to be flaming rubbish. I then bought a pair of binoculars to make myself feel like I’d actually branched out and made an effort. Weeks later, I figured out the TV guys had used them as a smokescreen to go to Garden City and eat fuul on slow days in the office. I discovered this when i stumbled across them while investigating my last firey adventure. The whole episode left me ashen faced and I still get knotted up thinking about it now.
I hear that its the thick black smoke columns that multiply and blacken suddenly that you really have to worry about. At least that’s what the Beirut office told me.
In Baghdad we could usually tell the bombs from the garbage by the loud explosion sound immediately preceding it 🙂 But otherwise, the rule of thumb was mortars were a sudden plume of smoke that dissipated quickly, car bombs were a plume of smoke followed by thick black smoke as the car burned but soon burnt out. Garbage would begin as thick black smoke and persist for up to half an hour.
It’s a bit sad knowing this.
One of the fires I went to was right next to the office. I was surprised to find the same senior policeman who oversaw the beating of protesters. To be fair though, he beat the fire onlookers too.
I spoke to a bank worker who said that at certain times of the year you’ll see many fires in offices and banks across Cairo. He said they are usually started by senior employees who have been busy in some sort of dodgy dealing and are looking to neatly cover up the evidence. ie. “Aiwa ya pasha, if only there hadnt been the fire last month, we would know exactly where the pension fund went.”
I couldnt ask him anymore because an overzealous officer came over and threatened to pistol whip us unless we moved on.
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