Boards
My house was on fire!!!
- Last night I went to bed about midnight, fell asleep fairly quickly then the next thing I know I wake up just after 1am to my mother's shouts telling me to get out of the house because there's a fire.
- I get dressed quickly grab some warm clothes and make my way downstairs (I'm on the top floor) it smells very strongly of smoke and having only just woken up I am quite bemused by the whole situation...not sure how big the fire is or where it's coming from. I can hear the smoke alarm.
- I find myself on the street/in our front garden with my mum, my dad and my two younger sisters. Everybody is out of the house (my older sister was at university). I vaguely recall my mother being on the 'phone and asking for "fire" and stating our address.
- I'm standing outside shivering with my two little sisters watching their bedroom window glowing orange with smoke billowing out of the small gap where it is open.
- About five minutes later a Fire engine arrives and the fire man checks whether there is anybody left in the building. They soon proceed along our garden path with hose in tow and run up the stairs to my sisters' bedroom which is directly below mine.
- Various other fire-men (by this time two more engines have arrived)set up lights on the path and ask us where the switch is to turn off the electricity. They also ask if we know what caused the fire. We told them we thought it was a halogen lamp that had been turned off but must have been faulty.
- I can see the ceiling of the room glistening wet with all the water and foam used to put out the fire. They have opened the window so even more thick black smoke is pouring out now.
- We went to my neighbour's house and soon some paramedics came and checked my sisters' breathing which was fine but for safety reasons they had to be carted off to the JR, my mum went with them.
- I was allowed back into the house to fetch some more clothes as I was now freezing and was accompanied by a fire-man and his torch. Had a glimpse at my sisters' room on the way everything was covered in a thick black film, their bed was non existent, the carpet was burnt away and men were filling up our dustbins with the debris.
- Some time later some lovely red cross fire support people came to talk to us to establish why the fire had started and to offer support etc. They then came to the hospital with my dad and I to see my mum and my sisters.
- Both my sisters were on oxygen masks and had blood tests to check for carbon monoxide levels, which luckily were low. Minor burns were also treated.
- We went home and I slept with my sisters in my neighbour's sitting room. Had to get up about two hours later to go to my Art Foundation course. My sisters understandably had they day off school.
- The fire was caused by a faulty halogen lamp which had been turned off heating up the carpet next to my sisters' bunk bed and setting it alight. My sister discovered the fire when she woke up due to her bed being on fire whilst she was in it. She then woke up my other sister who was on the top bunk they left the room and shut the door, woke up my mum who woke up my father and I and then we left the building. My mum did have a look at the blaze quickly but realised it was too big for her to deal with.
- Their room is pretty much destroyed cosmetically, luckily the fire was contained to that room. Lots of their furniture is destroyed or covered in soot. Their bed is completely wrecked, the wood all gone the remains of the mattresses lined up outside on the pavement. Everything is also soaked I can see water seeping through the ceiling in the room below. But that doesn't matter really because at least everybody is alright. The whole house also reeks of smoke as do all my clothes.