I'm at work on the second floor, although the office is unfamiliar. Outside the window is a narrow parking lot, just one lane for driving and a row of parked cars, and behind that a steep embankment that is taller than the building.

As I'm talking to someone about some business, over the embankment I see a huge plume of thick black smoke, spewing rapidly as if from a volcano, and growing in our direction. I can't tell where it is, exactly, because I can't see behind the hill, but we all start running.

I run like lightning down the stairs, hitting every second or third stair, in one fluid motion, and then outside. People are running all over, and I ask them if they've heard anything and they say no, but just look, pointing to the growing black cloud. But I explain that I'm not sure if we're safer indoors or out, and maybe somebody heard on the radio or something.