*mobile phone buzzes silently on my desk*
I look down to see my housemate Bob calling. ‘Oh what does he want’ I think and roll my eyes.
“Whats up? Im at work’ I say with some annoyance in my voice.
‘I just got a phone call, THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE’ he replies.
Stunned silence from me.
‘Is this some sort of sick joke?!’ I splutter.
He quickly tells me that one of his engineers was in our road and saw smoke coming from the upstairs windows of our house. I realise that my 2 prized dogs are locked in the house and have visions of them being roasted alive. I give a garbled explaination to my manager and run out of the office. On the way i call my parents who have a spare key to my house and live only 10 mins drive away. I simply say that the house is on fire and the dogs are locked in, get over to my house get them out NOW.
A million things were running through my mind on that hasty drive home. Although i knew the fire brigade had already been called i had no idea if they would enter a room with 2 large dogs in (health and safety and all that). I had images of everything burnt to a cinder and flames as high as the house.
When i screeched into the close, i was greeted with water running down the street, 2 fire engine appliances, people standing about in the road and firemen everywhere. Now you might think the ‘firemen everywhere’ part would be very tasty but i was too panicked and stressed to even notice if any of them were fit! I spotted my dad and ran over, unable to spot where my dogs were. He assured me they were outside the house in the back garden on their patio and that they were stressed but otherwise ok. I ran to see them and was greeted by two very stressed and excitable dogs. I cant tell you how good it was to be licked and scratched to death and have my smart work trousers covered in fur. The relief was immense.
I was told the fire had been put out and that we were lucky it hadnt spread further. There were firemen walking around everywhere. My parents were there, neighbours had come out to see what was going on, both my housemates had turned up, my boyfriend turned up, and the dogs were going crazy. It was pure chaos. I had no idea what was going on. The firemen showed me upstairs to where the damage was. As i entered the house i saw the busted front door, charcoal and black stuff scattered all over the floor and up the stairs carpet. I could easily see that downstairs was not burnt so i followed them upstairs. The cloying, choking smell of smoke and fumes was everywhere and is a smell i will never forget. The fire had been in the middle size bedroom. The room of my housemate Dave. The room, which had previously been light and airy was dank, wet, smokey and dark. The walls were covered in dirty water, the ceiling was dark and burnt, there was burnt stuff and charcoal everywhere.
The reason the fire hadnt spread further? We keep out bedroom doors shut. So if you learn one thing from my experience, learn this one – Shut internal doors when you go out. It could save you losing everything. In this case it stopped me losing the whole upstairs of my house instead of just one room. The photos below show some of the damage.
Here is the boiler and what remains of the wardrobe. (will be updated later)
*Please note that the names of all people and companies involved have been changed to protect identities
