Narrow Escape from a Burning House
Most dreadful Experience of my life
It was a sunny afternoon on Sunday, 2nd September 2018. I will never forget that day in my whole life as me and my whole family survived a big disaster with the blessing of GOD. Imagine your house is burning in front of you and you are so helpless that you can’t do anything to save your own house. You are losing everything, your rooms, your clothes, your furniture, your gold, and the list goes on. You are very frightened and have no idea what to do and where to go.
Our house is a double-story bungalow where 3 families live together, One on each floor. My family lives on the first floor. We were living safely for many years but suddenly on the day of 2nd September at around 2:00 pm, my husband smelt the burning smell. I was busy cooking in the kitchen on the ground floor while my kids were in their room on the first floor. My husband was sitting in the lounge area on the first floor which is outside my room. He rushes to our bedroom to check whether the smells came from our room or anywhere else. When he opened the bedroom door the smoke was coming from the backside of my bedroom fridge. He screamed in a shocking state and told us to bring soil to control the raging fire. Unfortunately, when we bring the soil the fire was caught by the curtains and was starting to spread all over my room.
My father-In-Law yells, “Leave everything and leave the house and get away from the fire as quickly as possible”. Our priority was to make sure that all the children of the family could escape safely. The flame had consumed the whole room. I didn’t want to leave my room in this burning situation, but I had no choice. We all were running out of our home while our gazes were stuck on the flames coming outside the windows. We stood still, stunned. What lay before us was an inferno. My room’s window exploded and the chunks of flaming glass collapsed around us. The sound of breaking glass which we heard from time to time made us more frightened. The smoke thickened to pitch black as the flames moved to my children’s room.
I know my room is burning down, I know I don’t have enough water, I was losing hope but suddenly my heart whispers prayers over and over. I realize that standing there and watching my house burning in front of me makes me more vulnerable, so I left that place and went to my aunt’s home next door. I started praying with my whole heart for the fire brigade to reach early and subdue the fire. Meanwhile, when I was finishing my prayers, help arrived in the form of eight to ten firefighters who worked for an hour to extinguish the flames. By the time the crews arrived, flames were shooting from every window of my portion. It was an accidental fire, the investigation later determined, begun due to an electrical short circuit.
I was anxiously waiting for the firefighters to finish their work so that I can take a look at my house. I wanted to walk through the ashes, to mourn, and to sit in the wreckage of my own house to remember all the memories and stuff that I have lost. Even after the fire had cooled down we weren’t able to go into our house for at least 3 to 4 hours because of extreme heat. When I went to my house to see what is left, my whole house was black with ashes. Fortunately, the fire didn’t make its way to the ground and second floor. My bedroom and the neighboring room were destroyed completely. I can’t explain my feeling in words, how lost I was feeling at that time when I saw my whole room turned into ashes, even though one thought made me relieved that no one from my family was harmed in this disaster. I was so thankful to my GOD who protected us.
I also felt so thankful to the people who supported us in this tough time. My aunt and my sister’s family who are also our neighbors provided us with their rooms to stay. They supported us physically and morally to help recover my family from this trauma. Words can’t fully express our family’s gratitude for their generosity. May GOD bless them all who helped us in our difficult time.