Fire
11:04 PM Edit This
It all started with sounds of wood crakling, breaking the silence of the night. I thought I was dreaming. Then there were loud bangs, like a giant tearing down walls of buildings and hurling them all over.
I heard my mum close her room door. She was up. I looked at my phone...'4.20am?' The noises I heard did not disappear. They were real. I put on my glasses and opened my window. The frequencies of crackling and bangs got faster and louder. Something was wrong.
I walked down the stairs, my mum and brother nowhere in sight. When I reached the living room, my house door was wide open. Outside the gate stood my mum, brother and a small group of Indian workers, staring into the bright orange spectacle ahead. My mum has a look of disbelief written all over her face. I grabbed my jacket and keys and hurried out. Whatever's happening was not good with this amount of attention.
Then I witnessed it. Two one-storey houses at the junction of my street were engulfed in fire. Tall flames reached towards the sky. They were higher than the height of my house despite the house being only a storey high. Behind the brilliant dancing flames, a full moon shone through. Clouds floated in front of the it, as if covering its face in shame of the fate that heaven has bestowed upon this burning house. We were dumbfounded.
The fire was spreading rapidly. Flames were already licking the wooden scaffolding a house under construction next to it. The wind was blowing strong, aiding the fire's fury. Bits of burning wood flickered up into the sky.
My brother told me the Indian workers (from the house under construction) already called the police and fire department. They also saw that the owners had ran out. However, their Honda Civic was parked right in front of the house, and it's too late to move it away. There was this sudden thought that the car may explode. Everyone started to back away from the burning spectacle. Neighbours woke up and joined the crowd of onlookers. A man in his forties with funky mohawk hairstyle came by on his bicycle with cartoon stickers all over. He claimed to have seen the fire first.
"Wah! I saw the fire just now!" he exclaimed in Hokkien. "It was only this big when I saw it", he gestured palm facing each other, from his tummy to his chin. "I thought they were burning joss paper outside so I didn't care". Apparently, this fateful day was the fifteenth day of the seventh month on the lunar calendar, thus any small fire may be easily mistaken as this typical ritual of the Hungry Ghost Festival.
Finally, what seemed like a long wait, a police car arrived. Where are the fire engines?? Then as if my question was answered, 2 firefighters on motorbikes arrived at the scene. Wah... like that will help =_="Neighbours rushed to move their cars away from the huge fire and out of the way of the police. The policemen instructed everyone in my house and the one next to it (we're just 2 houses away from the fire) to evacuate.
My uncle who came over on his bicycle (and typical of his unruly manners... and poor English) bellowed, "Fire car leh? Fire car leh??!"
"They're on the way", the policeman replied.
"ON THE WAY?!!", my uncle repeated in disbelief. Probably the fire was spreading very fast relative to the time which the fire engines took to arrive. Onlookers started to debate on the speed of police and firefighters response. Every minute counts. The police cordoned off all 4 roads of the cross-junction.
Eventually, the fire engines came. Firefighters rushed out, pulling along hoses towards fire hydrants nearby. While doing so, a few firefighters went near the burning house and fired what seemed like powerful shots of water into it. A ladder on the fire engine was elevated and a firefighter spurt water over the flames. Water from hoses gushed out. Firefighters were in action.
I didn't notice how long they took to put out the fire. But by the time we were allowed back into our houses, it was already 5.30am. My brother joked that we can go for breakfast already. But with work and school in the next few hours, everyone just went back to bed.
When I left home at 8am, the police were still around investigating the cause of fire. My poor neighbours. Their car was charred and the front tyres were melted so badly. The house... was just left with brick pillars. Everything inside was charred. The zinc sheet that used to be part of the roof collapsed.
Nothing's left.
As I walked towards the next street, people were doing morning exercises and going to work. They weren't aware of the tragedy that occured just a few hours ago. Life goes on.
A short report of this incident on CNA website
I heard my mum close her room door. She was up. I looked at my phone...'4.20am?' The noises I heard did not disappear. They were real. I put on my glasses and opened my window. The frequencies of crackling and bangs got faster and louder. Something was wrong.
I walked down the stairs, my mum and brother nowhere in sight. When I reached the living room, my house door was wide open. Outside the gate stood my mum, brother and a small group of Indian workers, staring into the bright orange spectacle ahead. My mum has a look of disbelief written all over her face. I grabbed my jacket and keys and hurried out. Whatever's happening was not good with this amount of attention.
Then I witnessed it. Two one-storey houses at the junction of my street were engulfed in fire. Tall flames reached towards the sky. They were higher than the height of my house despite the house being only a storey high. Behind the brilliant dancing flames, a full moon shone through. Clouds floated in front of the it, as if covering its face in shame of the fate that heaven has bestowed upon this burning house. We were dumbfounded.
The fire was spreading rapidly. Flames were already licking the wooden scaffolding a house under construction next to it. The wind was blowing strong, aiding the fire's fury. Bits of burning wood flickered up into the sky.
My brother told me the Indian workers (from the house under construction) already called the police and fire department. They also saw that the owners had ran out. However, their Honda Civic was parked right in front of the house, and it's too late to move it away. There was this sudden thought that the car may explode. Everyone started to back away from the burning spectacle. Neighbours woke up and joined the crowd of onlookers. A man in his forties with funky mohawk hairstyle came by on his bicycle with cartoon stickers all over. He claimed to have seen the fire first.
"Wah! I saw the fire just now!" he exclaimed in Hokkien. "It was only this big when I saw it", he gestured palm facing each other, from his tummy to his chin. "I thought they were burning joss paper outside so I didn't care". Apparently, this fateful day was the fifteenth day of the seventh month on the lunar calendar, thus any small fire may be easily mistaken as this typical ritual of the Hungry Ghost Festival.
Finally, what seemed like a long wait, a police car arrived. Where are the fire engines?? Then as if my question was answered, 2 firefighters on motorbikes arrived at the scene. Wah... like that will help =_="Neighbours rushed to move their cars away from the huge fire and out of the way of the police. The policemen instructed everyone in my house and the one next to it (we're just 2 houses away from the fire) to evacuate.
My uncle who came over on his bicycle (and typical of his unruly manners... and poor English) bellowed, "Fire car leh? Fire car leh??!"
"They're on the way", the policeman replied.
"ON THE WAY?!!", my uncle repeated in disbelief. Probably the fire was spreading very fast relative to the time which the fire engines took to arrive. Onlookers started to debate on the speed of police and firefighters response. Every minute counts. The police cordoned off all 4 roads of the cross-junction.
Eventually, the fire engines came. Firefighters rushed out, pulling along hoses towards fire hydrants nearby. While doing so, a few firefighters went near the burning house and fired what seemed like powerful shots of water into it. A ladder on the fire engine was elevated and a firefighter spurt water over the flames. Water from hoses gushed out. Firefighters were in action.
I didn't notice how long they took to put out the fire. But by the time we were allowed back into our houses, it was already 5.30am. My brother joked that we can go for breakfast already. But with work and school in the next few hours, everyone just went back to bed.
When I left home at 8am, the police were still around investigating the cause of fire. My poor neighbours. Their car was charred and the front tyres were melted so badly. The house... was just left with brick pillars. Everything inside was charred. The zinc sheet that used to be part of the roof collapsed.
Nothing's left.
As I walked towards the next street, people were doing morning exercises and going to work. They weren't aware of the tragedy that occured just a few hours ago. Life goes on.
A short report of this incident on CNA website
