FALMOUTH – It was not a dystopian novel, just a fire alarm at the Falmouth Library.
The books are safe, and the firemen in this story are the good guys, unlike the fire starters in Ray Bradbury’s classic novel about book burning, “Fahrenheit 451,” which we heard referred to while standing outside waiting for the alarm to stop.
Ready for anything to save Falmouth’s books. CAPE COD WAVE PHOTO
About 11:30 Monday morning, the fire alarm at the library went off. Librarians, while saying, “This isn’t a drill,” ushered people out of the library, where the crowd then watched for a half an hour as several fire trucks showed up to make sure that the library and its contents were safe.
Although there are fire drills at the library, Linda Collins, library director, later said, “we don’t have many false alarms.” She said it was most likely related to the most recent power outage. During the recent storm, the library lost power for 3-1/2 days, she said.
With the town’s popular bookstore, Eight Cousins, already closed and damaged by a flood, the response to the alarm was comforting to book lovers who witnessed it. “One of the fireman said that when they heard it was the library, they hurried over,” said Collins.
Fully geared up and some even carrying axes, firefighters entered the building quickly but it took almost a half hour for the alarm to stop.
Messages left with the Falmouth Fire Department, about this minor incident, were not returned.
Cape Cod Wave happened to be in the library at the time of the alarm, when we ran into a friend who said she had been looking to get a novel. After waiting outside a bit during the alarm, she left and we found ourselves standing near, we found out later, the librarians.
One of the librarians made a reference to “Fahrenheit 451.” We missed the specifics, but, upon reflection, we realized that librarians are just quicker and smarter than the rest of us who rely on Google.
Seeing fire trucks at the library made “Fahrenheit 451,” of course, an interesting plot to contemplate in 2018 America, while it was clear these local firefighters had only one plot in mind, making sure the library was safe.
We did hear another reference, even more local to the Falmouth Library from a library volunteer outside the library we met, Linda Taylor. She speculated that the group of turkeys who hang out near the library and have gained some notoriety through the years, may have been responsible.
But Collins said, “The turkeys are in the clear on this.”
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