Fire | 48

(photo taken: April 10, 2015)

This is why you should take pictures because you never know when you might need them. But in my defense, I was pretty scared so I didn't want to get near it.

I'm surprised I was the one who woke up, out of everyone in the house who are pretty light sleepers. I was sound asleep, and all of a sudden I hear what sounds like someone pouring water on the ground. Before this happened, I was traumatized after seeing in the news about an apartment catching on fire so everyone had to jump out of the windows. Some broke their legs, some were crawling, some couldn't even do that because their backs were burned, you could see their flesh and blood, just horrible. They were thinking someone probably set it up because of the way the fire occurred. Since behind our apartment, outside our window, is an alley I started wondering what if they same thing happened. What if in the middle of the night someone poured gasoline and then lit a match? 

So when I heard what I thought was water pouring on the ground, I immediately woke up. It was strange but I'm glad I woke up because I was sound asleep but that noise woke me up like an alarm. I looked outside the window and I saw a fire in the alley. There had been a homeless man sleeping in the there for a few months, but he had everything set up like an actual house. He had four mattresses set up around him like walls, so much newspaper and cans, another mattress, he had set up his own "kitchen" and "library", basically everything he had there was flammable. So my initial reaction was screaming "ohh crap" which woke my mum up and I told her there was a fire in the alley. Apparently my brother was already awake, yet he didn't wake us up. He tried calling 911 but apparently it was busy...really? So my mum told me to call while she woke up my dad and other brother. I was pretty shaken up and freaking out so I was stuttering way more than usual while making the call. They said they received a few calls before so they were already sending firefighters. 

The picture of the men jumping from the windows and having their backs burned kept playing in my head. Apparently what I heard were the flames getting bigger and everything he had was falling. His "house" was pretty big so it was a big fire. My parents and brothers decided to check it out from the balcony and I'm like these people are crazy shouldn't we leave the building? But they said that it's okay as long as there's no wind or whatever. It was pretty big and powerful, I saw the reflection, the redness, on the other building in front of us. I was freaked out, I went out onto the balcony and seeing the flames and hearing the guy screaming I thought he was inside. But naw, he fled as soon as the firemen came. I didn't want to get near the balcony so I was just sitting on the far couch. 

All of a sudden that one box, I don't know what box it is, but it's like a million wires, caught on fire as well. It's on the pole that has the light wires, so in my head I'm like yup it's gonna explode! That's when the firemen came rushing and we kept yelling at them about the box but I guess it wasn't dangerous because they didn't do anything about it. I only went out to the balcony as soon as I saw that they were there. That water pressure! I thought it would be easy to burn out the fire but no it took a good while. Once it was out, they still had to water it down because under all the debris, there was still smoke.

Once the fire was already out, a kid from the floor below us called a fireman before they left and threw him a card and screaming "thank you for saving us", it was pretty cute! It all ended at around almost 6 so everyone (except my brother and I) stayed up since they wake up around that time. I didn't think I'd sleep I was thinking of watching the sunrise, but I ended up knocking out. When I woke up in the morning there were workers cleaning up the mess but also fixing the box since it cut the cable. It still reeked like smoke in the morning and throughout the day! The picture shows how it looked in the morning, and that was once they had already cleaned up! So just imagine how bad it was!

I don't care if I sound mean or anything, but they're a danger. What if there was strong wind that day? Our building might have caught on fire! Actually, the building in front of us, to the day still has the black spot because the fire was pretty close! A fireman had to go inside the room to make sure everyone was safe, saying the room inside felt pretty hot. So that's pretty scary! And not too long ago, I was home alone and all of a sudden I look up and see a cloud of smoke. I immediately got my keys and left the building, I thought the alley was burning up again. Turns out it was on the other street and it was the same thing. Another little tent thing from homeless people went up in flames. That street is actually pretty horrible. You can barely walk because they take up the sidewalk with their things. What if it all burns up again? Not just dangerous for them but for people and buildings around the area. And it's pretty sad when I learned that in the last two years homelessness has gone up by 12-13%. Pretty sad, but also gives a bad look on the streets.