Bad week for old buildings

The fire on Saturday was in a 100 year old Soho landmark building. The outside looks okay, but apparently the inside was gutted. Then yesterday an old Romanian synagogue built in the mid-1800s fell in. It was the one back on Rivington and Ludlow (about 5 blocks behind our apartment). What clues in neighborhood residents that things are falling/burning down? The incessant circling of the new helicopters. For hours.