The civil disturbances in Baltimore, MD have loomed large on national and local news reports. Amidst many concerns about this situation OTO members have been concerned with the fate of William Blake Lodge which is located in west Baltimore — and for good reason. A building immediately adjacent to the Lodge caught fire and was destroyed. Dr. Richard Kaczynski reported on his FB feed:
?The news reporter in the linked video clip is standing in front of William Blake Lodge – O.T.O. (i.e. the building with the big white sign), reporting on a three-alarm fire burning the store fronts literally next door to our building. When she says ‘We’re at the back end of that fire, where they are trying to keep an adjacent building from going up in flames by turning water on it,’ that’s us. There’s no indication of fire damage or any danger to the Cambridge Building itself, but yikes! this is too close for comfort.” You can view the newscast – filmed early in the morning Tuesday April 28: http://www.wbaltv.com/news/multiplealarm-fire-burns-in-west-baltimore/32610764
Later on Tuesday, Brother Kaczynski ventured into the city to inspect the Lodge in person and had this to report:
“Update: Driving into Baltimore with CS and KK, things along our route looked pretty normal. Even the neighborhood looked like it usually does, except for the burned out building next to ours. Evidently the fire department broke into our building (rather than use the lock box that they required the landlord to install) and kicked in the door to the lodge along with various other suites for…well, we’re not exactly sure. Nothing inside the lodge space was disturbed or damaged, either by fire or water. Yay! But looking out the temple window, we could see the remains of our neighbors’ building still smoldering. The building maintenance guy is fixing our door, the fire department continued to work on the burning rubble across the alley, and we drove back out without incident. All quiet in that neighborhood, at least.”
