What a world we live in.

A few moments prior to my writing this, I heard fire engine sirens outside my house. Looking out my office window and through our neighbor's trees, I could see multiple units responding to a house across the nearest main street. I wondered to myself: "Could I determine what problem they were responding to?" A quick google for "Raleigh fire scanner" returned several hits, one of which was OpenMHz. I pulled up the site, saw that I could filter on "EMS Fire Alerts Only," and selected that option.

Clicking backwards through the playlist, I found the corresponding entry: a gas leak! Cross referencing the reported address, I verified that the house was indeed near our neighborhood. Success!

It's amazing what is possible through the internet. As an aside, this website appears to be a really neat way to listen to what's going on in the area. I can listen to the airport (there was a reported ash-can fire this morning), Raleigh police, or a general overview of all channels (a multiple-vehicle crash occurred a few minutes ago down near Fuquay Varina). Other filters are also available; pretty neat!