New Yorkers have a deep-rooted fear of fire. Local TV morning news often leads with a chopper hovering over a five-alarm fire (referring to the number of separate fire companies called to fight the blaze). Firehouses dot the city, small and often landmarked. My firm’s local firehouse is Hook & Ladder Company 8 in Tribeca, of Ghostbusters fame. Despite knowing it’s irrational, every time the TV blasts out a fire news report, I freeze and focus, hoping it isn’t one of our projects.

After the terrifying images of the Grenfell fire in June 2017 hit the US headlines, articles were written claiming it couldn’t happen here, and the story faded from the news. It wasn’t a US story, and we have plenty of our own homemade dramas to keep us occupied. Tragedies rewrite codes, and 9/11 was NYC’s. Building codes were reassessed and updated, hearings held, and overnight the concepts of security at work and airports changed. The US went to war.

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