We had gotten so used to hearing the fire alarm go off in our building, whenever someone’s food was burning or when anyone was smoking a cigarette in the room…We would just wait patiently for a few minutes until the alarm would stop. I never even bothered opening my door and checking in those scenarios. That night though, the events unfolded differently. I had went to bed at midnight and set my alarm to wake up early to meet my dad the next day…I was woken up by the loud sound of the alarm and simply rushed to the washroom while waiting for it to end as it always does. This time it didn’t stop though…That’s when I started to be suspicious. Hearing the fire truck siren only made me feel terrified! That was when I changed into a t-shirt and jogging pants and started to head out of my room….before Going back to grab my hand bag.
I joined everyone else in running down the stairs…It was a long trip for me as I live on a relatively high floor. While going down those stairs – seeing everyone carrying their most prized possessions, their young children or their pets – I found out that the fire was in the tower next to ours, and not in our building. That moment of relief was followed by a terrifying image of the huge blaze of fire at the top of the tower in the cluster next to ours. It was supposedly one of the best building developments in our area. And now it was under fire!
Standing outside in a daze, we all watched the fire as it grew vigorously and spread out to the higher floors of the tower. The weather was getting cooler…I went and sat next to my neighbor whom I haven’t seen in a while, and we were catching up on the pavement while staring at the growing blaze in front of us.
As the weather got cooler, we headed into our building’s lobby…and waited for instructions from the security guards. Who later asked us to go up to our apartments and sleep. They said that in case of an emergency, they would pull the fire trigger and we would have to go back down again! A couple of us were happy to follow that advise and took the elevator back to our places. Having left my place in a rush, my phone was still sitting at my night stand when I came back home. Another friend of mine from the building was trying to get through to me, so I called her back. She said that it wasn’t a good idea to stay in the building, in case of an explosion or something like that.
That’s when I shifted from an awkward moment of getting ready to go back to bed to a more serious one of taking my passport, cell phone, and a light cardigan, and heading back out of my door with my hand bag.
I found myself the star of a horror/thriller/action movie flick as I tried to make my way through the fire trucks and police cars and officers. The area was closed and no one was allowed to go in. But I explained to the police officers how I had to meet my friends at the other end of the road. And that’s why I needed to get past this mess to cross the metro bridge to the other side! After a few phone calls from my friend, two brief encounters with the civil defense guys, and a marathon in the rebel and the flying ashes and hanging debris from the palm trees, I finally made it to the metro station and met up with my friends.
Luckily, our refuge was at a beautiful villa at the palm…and we spent the early morning hours lounging on a sofa at the terrace….in complete awe at how the events have unfolded and how we were transformed from a brutal nightmare setting into an amazingly serene and incredibly peaceful paradise backdrop.
When we finally made it back to our area a few hours later, we were confronted by the aftermath of the sad event. A vertical side of the once pristine and beautifully designed tower was now covered in pitch black ashes and pieces of the cladding were aimlessly hanging on to their lives on the exterior of the building.
Despite the initial shock, the immense panic and stress, the adrenaline rush, and the commotion that left its effects in our hearts and in our souls, I believe that witnessing a real fire makes us loose all our attachments to material things, and gives us a strong reminder of the more important things in life….ones that can never be lost in a massive blaze.
Wow nada!!! Im happy I wasn’t there as I’m really bad in this kinda situations!!!its an strange area!! One night someone died because of wrong fire alarm and now the real fire!! The night I told u about !!!!!!hope the story of fire ends up to only tamweel!!
Yeah I know….I hope so too! At least we had a good practice, so the next time it happens, maybe I’ll remember to take my phone :p
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