Close call…

The moment the 2 missed calls warning flashing in my cellphone, I knew something was wrong. It was my Mom and my sister trying to call me. I tried calling but no one was answering. I called the house, still no answer. Every minute that passed my anxiety grew. When I was able to contact my sister, she immediately gave me the news I dreaded to hear…

“Kuya, umuwi ka agad. Nasusunog yung kapitbahay natin sa likod.”

There are only a few things that I worry about and this was one of them. I worry about our house burning down and I’m away at work. On the taxi ride home I mumbled my prayers silently “Please God, let everything be alright.” Along the way I tried to see if the traffic signaled a large fire, which I’m praying it isn’t. The traffic was normal for the afternoon rush. Good. I looked for traces of smoke, there was none. Good, good. As the cab drew closer the traffic became heavier, bad, but the absence of smoke lessened my worries for the moment. I got off a couple of blocks away and from afar can already see the long stretch of fire engines at our street and the next. I walked as fast as I could and my neighbors are outside on our drenched street, some with their belongings and some cleaning the mess. The sight of our house intact was a relief amid the smell of burnt wood that was washed down. It’s 3:45 in the afternoon.

I entered to see my Mom and sister trying to make put away some of the mess. Our wet floor gave the impression that the firefighters fought the flames from our backyard, (and as I found out later, from our roof). I immediately went to our backyard and saw our neighbors’ damaged house. The entire 3rd floor was burned along with some of the 2nd floor. I don’t know if it’s a good or bad thing that no one’s home when the fire started. The fire actually started from the house on a diagonal from ours. Subsequent nosing around led me to the news that an aircon “exploded” at around 3 in the afternoon.

I always dread when March comes around, it being “Fire-Awareness Month” (which was previously Fire Prevention Month). Whoever thought of institutionalizing the slogan should be “institutionalized”. I figure it’s like saying the Titanic was unsinkable.

I’m really thankful that the only damage we have is water-borne. Living in Manila has made me resilient to water. I can take on the floods anytime.