New York man sees a building on fire and calls 911. The FDNY reaches the scene and tells him what he actually saw: ‘What are you doing?’

A New York man shared a video in which he described calling 911 after spotting what appeared to be a fire in a nearby apartment building. Kieran Murray, who posts on TikTok as @kieranknightley, walked along a city street at dusk while red emergency lights flashed behind him. The video has gained hundreds of thousands of views.

Murray said in the TikTok video, “The craziest thing just happened. I saw a fire in a building and called 911.” The caption on the post stated, “I can’t believe it’s been three years since I cost the city of New York a quarter of $1M dollars @FDNY.” He wore clear-framed glasses and a grey zip-up hoodie with a black crossbody strap as he spoke directly to the camera.

The clip then cut to footage shot from a rooftop or window, showing a brick apartment building with visible flames in one of its windows. Three fire emojis were overlaid on the shot, and on-screen text read “building,” “and,” “called,” and “911” as the camera zoomed in on the window. Murray later explained in the video that the situation was not what it first seemed.

Video shows fire trucks responding and Murray learning the apparent flames came from a television

The video shifted to a high-angle view looking down at a city street corner. A fire truck with sirens wailing pulled up to the intersection, followed by a second fire truck; both parked with emergency lights flashing. The street featured marked bike lanes and crosswalks, with multi-story brick buildings surrounding the area. Firefighters are used to unpredictable scenes, like the woman who pushed through a fire scene.

Cutting back to Murray walking under a fire escape, he continued his account. He said, “but it turns out it was just an 8-foot TV with a yule log on it.” The video briefly returned to the zoomed-in shot of the window with on-screen text reading “on it.”

Murray explained that he ran down to the responders and told them what he had seen. He said in the video, “So I ran down, I was like, this is what I saw, and they’re like, yeah bro, it was a, it was a yule log, what are you doing?” He laughed as he finished the anecdote, ending the video on the street with trees and brick buildings behind him.

Several viewers reacted to the clip and shared their thoughts on the incident. One commenter expressed surprise at the idea of such a large television. They wrote, “an 8ft tv with a yule log” as though that’s… normal???

Another commenter suggested that people should avoid getting involved in certain situations. They wrote, “This is why you gotta mind your business.” One viewer acknowledged that the image looked convincing. They wrote, “Okay yeah that looks like a fire. You could have called 311 but I get why 911 was a good idea.”

A different commenter noted the realistic appearance of the scene. They wrote, “to be fair it looks very real.” Another viewer said calls made with good intentions are worthwhile. They wrote, “As long as it was with good intentions, there’s no such thing as a bad call. It’s better to be safe than sorry.” One commenter thanked Murray for trying to help. They wrote, “Oh no!!! Thanks for trying to be a good citizen anyway!”

A separate viewer described a similar mix-up with a household item. They wrote, “I bought one of those flickering fire lightbulbs from Home Depot & my landlord legit thought it was a fire. That lightbulb has been on for YEARS.” Fire department mix-ups with a funny twist happen elsewhere too, like when a firefighter got stuck in a Walmart toy.