"Fire!"
I jumped from my bed immediately and rushed to the window to see for myself. Indeed, there it was. A mountain of black smoke rising from powerful fat flames. The fire was not significantly far so we immediately called the attention of our other boardmates. They all ran to the room and took a peek from our window with wide, worried eyes. We deliberated whether or not we should start packing ourselves. And the alarm decided for us.
Hurriedly, I grabbed everything I could set my eyes on. My laptop first, then my school uniform and some clothes. I even managed to snuck in my vitamins and my facial regimens. I stuffed everything in my bag in a huge lump of mess, wrapped myself in a jacket, forgetting to put on my bra and ran downstairs with everybody. We were not really in a state of severe panic, but thanks to the continuous ringing of the alarm, we were quite on our way there. I texted my mom and told her about it. She told me to do what I already had done. When we were finally outside, we saw five or more fire trucks lined up at the front of our dormitory. They were very huge so they couldn't fit in that small pathway that led to where the fire was. That had us more worried.
We watched as everybody else got up, clad in their sleeping garments and jackets, bringing several bags that must have contained what ours also did. I was feeling quite the journalist, even though I knew I'm not cut out to be one, so I took out my temperamental almost-ready-to-break-down camera and took a few shots of everybody.
Dimples (the girl crouching down covered in a blanket) and her landlady.
We were unharmed, thankfully.
The fire from our window.
We asked some of the firefighters but they couldn't tell us what caused the fire or how big it spread yet.
When we were assured that the fire was not going to reach our dormitory, we walked around and found ourselves directly in front of the boarding house that went ablaze. By then, the fire had already died down.
We were thankful we hadn't lost anything by that incident. In fact, I gained these very important realizations:
1. You can never know when terrible incidents like fires, flood and the like will happen. And when they do, you should be ready.
2. You can never get complacent. Even if the fire was a little far back from our dormitory, we couldn't brush it off and simply say "that will never reach us" . You can't be sure of anything.
3. Things are a little easier when you go through terrible things with friends. God forbid, if that fire had reached us, I'm sure I wouldn't be so bummed out losing all those shoes, clothes, etc.. than if I had lost all those mentioned things and not have someone go through the same experience. That sounds selfish but I'm sure we would find a way to laugh things off.
4. You should always be careful. Dimples, the girl whose room the fire started, woke up suddenly and found herself surrounded by flames. Survival insticnt told her to get out immediately so she wasn't able to bring anything with her except that blanket she was shivering in. Nobody knows yet what caused the fire but it was most likely caused by something that overheated.
5. Pray. It gives you a feeling that everything will turn out okay in the end.
No comments:
Post a Comment