Meth Lab Arson

Sirens by themselves tend not to disturb us anymore.  Now it takes a combination of sirens plus the rev of multiple engines, or our living room being bathed in alternating colored strobe lights.  We finally paused our movie, an early 1970s futuristic German movie about computers where there were long shots of people not looking at one another and faces reflected in mirrors, to look outside.  The alley behind the houses across the street was bathed in headlights, which was the only reason we saw a plume of dark smoke.  A house that faced the alley was burning, which was enough for us to put on actual clothes and shoes to go look.  It seemed like the whole neighborhood had waddled down to ogle the destruction.