Mon Voyage…Ma Vie

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" That vigorous knocking on our door, together with
the building alarm going off definitely roused me from my sleep. Having
heard the fire alarm go off the week before then finding out that the
alarm was just grounded made me and my neighbors in our apartment
complex learn to ignore the sound. But with the agressive knocking on
our door, I knew it was not a false alarm anymore.

It was a Sunday morning, three weekends ago that this happened. Having
been awakened by the agressive thumping on the door, I immediately
tapped my husband beside me to wake up.  Like almost all people who are
awakened so quickly, his eyes opened with a surprised look. Of course
by this time, he already heard the fire alarm sounding off and I also
informed him about the knocks on the door.  We both ran to the door and
opened it.  Thick smoke was covering the whole wing of our apartment
complex.  My husband got his shoes and the only footwear I was able to
grab was my pair of slippers.  Dashing down the staircase, we bumped
into tenant-neighbors from the upper floor. 

Looking around, almost all of us were wearing our sleepwear.
Obviously, on a Sunday morning, we were all enjoying a no-work day,
sleeping soundly on our beds.  Good thing my hubby and I were wearing
our jogging pants, or else, we would’ve felt cold outside as we failed
to get our jackets.  I had no time to be conscious of how non-color
coordinated I was with my 101 Dalmatian shirt, pink jogging pants, and
green slippers. ;p  Our concern, like everyone else’s, was the safety
of all the tenants.

As we moved to the parking lot, we got to talk to two of our neighbors
who lived in the units in front of ours and the one beside us.  They
are also Filipinos.  One of them was trying to comfort her 4-year old
daughter who was visibly shaking because of nervousness and fear.  Upon
talking to the woman whose unit was beside ours, we learned that the
smoke was coming from their unit.  Whoa! It hit me that we were awakened because if the fire got out of
control, Johnny and I would have been affected as our room was adjacent
to the kitchen of the other unit.  She told us that her father was
heating up soup but forgot to attend to it because he got
distracted by a television show he was watching in another room.  It
was the wife who smelled the burning scent and got out of the room,
only to discover that the pan had turned black already, produced a
small fire around the rim, and emitted black, thick smoke.  By then,
their unit had already been covered with smoke. Since each unit has a
smoke detector, theirs rang off quickly. When they opened the door,
smoke spread fast along the hallway causing the main building alarm to
do its job. 

Paramedics and firefighters were prompt in responding to frantic
calls.  But THANK GOD because there really was no fire that spread,
except around that dried-up, badly burned pan.  Of course, the smoke
was another problem, but with industrial fans turned on the whole day,
the burning smell dissipated.

Our Pinoy neighbor who lived in the suite beside us was very
apologetic.  The old man, her husband, did not even show his face
anymore that day because he was so embarrassed.  But we assured his
wife that we understood it was an accident and told her that what’s
important is the safety of everyone in the apartment complex. 

Lessons have been learned and all of us are extra careful about leaving
the stove on.  Before going to bed, I don’t fail to double check the
stove and oven controls.  And even if it sounds romantic to light
candles for special occasions or maybe to even benefit from
aromatherapy, I’d rather rely on the energy-efficient light bulbs I
bought for sale to provide whatever light I need.

Because of that experience, I felt that there’s now some sort of bonding among the tenants, especially those staying in our wing. In that 40 minutes or so of uncertainty, the Filipinos, French, South African, East Indian, Canadian, and Chinese got to mingle and share a moment that could have been harrowing, yet turned out to be a positive, wake-up call to everyone about safety.

Fire is a serious thing. Property damage can be colossal but that is
nothing compared to the GIFT of LIFE which we must all strive to keep
precious, not only for ourselves but for our neighbors as well. Besides, we only have one each, right?

Lucky cats!

This entry was posted on Friday, October 6th, 2006 at 1:33 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.