Stories of this Canadian girl's adventures exploring Europe & beyond...join me!

Saturday, February 12, 2011

fire

Yesterday there was a real fire. I headed out of the house in the late afternoon to apply for another job, and I was instantly struck by the acrid smell of something burning. The air up on the bridge was thick with smoke, so I knew that the fire was near.

From on the bridge I could see that beside the church, where great guy was confirmed as a boy, the building was on fire. Flames were leaping from the windows and a crowd had gathered on the street. Firefighters were already high up in the sky, spraying water from an aerial ladder. The entire neighbourhood was engulfed in smoke and emergency vehicles were continuing to zoom to the scene.

Rock 'n roller, whose birthday party we attended last night and who had watched the fire for a while, told me that the building is a recently renovated student house, operated by the church. The newspapers said there are 17 current residents, from China and Cameroon, who weren't hurt, and that the cause of the fire is still unknown.

As I headed to the bakery this morning to pick up broetchen (buns), I went past the building to have a look. I was struck by the fact that such a huge fire was contained to only a portion of the top floor, and didn't even touch the house which is attached to it on the far side of the church. An old Christmas wreath hung from the balcony,3 metres away from the burned out windows, unscathed and still green, and the plastic blinds hung lop-sided from the fourth window, unmelted and still white. Firefighters are amazing.

P.S. Cucumber update: After 3 days I decided to remove the unclaimed cucumber from the mailbox and put it into the compost bin. I hope that doesn't constitute mail theft.
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