Sans living room
Ok, so things have happened in the last 24 hours which I need to record somewhere, so I'm going to do it here.
I'll start with the fact that things are ok right now.
That being said, yesterday at roughly 3 am the living room in my house caught fire.
Apparently, the fuse box decided to immolate itself, taking the stereo with it, which in turn took the curtains and the sofa, and thus, the living room was no more.
The real fire happened only in that room, but the house is inhabitable right now. The smoke filled everything, so now every single item of the house has a layer of sticky sooth, thickness depending on how close the place was to the living room. Also, the fireman busted the door down and then proceeded to hose down everything, so the whole mess became wet. Everything reeks of burnt plastic so much it irritates eyes and nose, too.
I found out about this at 9 am today when my mom called me with her Everything Is Ok voice asking me to come and pick clothes from my wardrobe, since I'm gonna be staying at someone's place for a while, and think of what to do with the fish.
My brother was at a friend's, I was at Emma's (as I usually am on weekends), and my parents were supposed to go out for a weekend trip to the coast, roughly at 5 or 6 am. That is to say, my parents were asleep and alone in the house.
Now my dad sleeps lightly, so the crackle-pop of things burning downstairs woke him up. By then, the house was a solid ball of smoke, but the window in their room is the only one that has a small balcony, so they went outside and called for help. A neighbor called the fire department, and in less than 5 minutes they were both on the ground, freaked out, but mostly ok. Then they went to the hospital and both checked out as completely healthy, unlike the fireman who took them there. The nurses made some routine studies and my parents were a-ok, but the fireman had extremely high blood pressure, so he was forced to stay behind. The irony.
A smaller problem is that this happened on a Saturday early morning. The forensics from the insurance people won't come until Monday, so the house has to stay as-is for them to determinate if by any chance this isn't some kind of mildly-suicide plot to cheat the company and collect the insurance. Anyways, this meant that there was not much to do until Monday, other than taking everything form the freezer and bringing it to my grandparents' (bless is her monster giant fridge/freezer), so we all went to have lunch there in what was one of the most awkward and single-themed family reunions of my whole life.
Then me and Emma, (who had come to help, too) went back to the house to see what could be done about the fishes, getting clean clothes for the week, etc. The tanks needed electricity, so we had to transport them both to my other grannie's house. They had to be emptied completely for them to be transportable, so I worry about the health of the bacteria colonies. That, and I have no idea what the sooth might have done to them. I hope it's nothing.
After that there was not much to do, so we both came back to Emma's house. Today we were supposed to have a get together for gameboarding which we decided not to cancel, because well, distracting ourselves from everything was something that we could both use.
It was a great idea. I had an awesome evening playing Game of Thrones.
Now, the surreal part of all this is for me, that aside from two minutes of wibbling on the bus back home, is that I'm not extremely upset about this. We were so very amazingly lucky. It might not sound like that, but it's true.
Things like, what if the fire had started a couple of hours later and no one would have noticed before the whole house burned down. What if my dad hadn't woken up. What if we were not insured (this one is still mostly hopeful, since insurance companies tend to be absolute assholes when you actually need them, but even so). What if it had been a different part of the house we actually need for surviving, like the kitchen. What is ANYTHING.
I can't help thinking this could have been a disaster. It's still going to be hell to fix, (I foresee LOTS of scrubbing in my near future) but it can be done and, eventually, life will go back to normal. I just see the house, the burnt things, my fishes, the whole mess, and the only thing I can fit in my head is that my mom and dad are alive and well.
I really can't think about anything else.
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EDIT: I almost forgot I took some pictures. Among the rubble, there was this plastic dinosaur toy that survived intact, and it was the weirdest and most awesome room-sized post-apocalypse postcard I'll ever get.
I'll start with the fact that things are ok right now.
That being said, yesterday at roughly 3 am the living room in my house caught fire.
Apparently, the fuse box decided to immolate itself, taking the stereo with it, which in turn took the curtains and the sofa, and thus, the living room was no more.
The real fire happened only in that room, but the house is inhabitable right now. The smoke filled everything, so now every single item of the house has a layer of sticky sooth, thickness depending on how close the place was to the living room. Also, the fireman busted the door down and then proceeded to hose down everything, so the whole mess became wet. Everything reeks of burnt plastic so much it irritates eyes and nose, too.
I found out about this at 9 am today when my mom called me with her Everything Is Ok voice asking me to come and pick clothes from my wardrobe, since I'm gonna be staying at someone's place for a while, and think of what to do with the fish.
My brother was at a friend's, I was at Emma's (as I usually am on weekends), and my parents were supposed to go out for a weekend trip to the coast, roughly at 5 or 6 am. That is to say, my parents were asleep and alone in the house.
Now my dad sleeps lightly, so the crackle-pop of things burning downstairs woke him up. By then, the house was a solid ball of smoke, but the window in their room is the only one that has a small balcony, so they went outside and called for help. A neighbor called the fire department, and in less than 5 minutes they were both on the ground, freaked out, but mostly ok. Then they went to the hospital and both checked out as completely healthy, unlike the fireman who took them there. The nurses made some routine studies and my parents were a-ok, but the fireman had extremely high blood pressure, so he was forced to stay behind. The irony.
A smaller problem is that this happened on a Saturday early morning. The forensics from the insurance people won't come until Monday, so the house has to stay as-is for them to determinate if by any chance this isn't some kind of mildly-suicide plot to cheat the company and collect the insurance. Anyways, this meant that there was not much to do until Monday, other than taking everything form the freezer and bringing it to my grandparents' (bless is her monster giant fridge/freezer), so we all went to have lunch there in what was one of the most awkward and single-themed family reunions of my whole life.
Then me and Emma, (who had come to help, too) went back to the house to see what could be done about the fishes, getting clean clothes for the week, etc. The tanks needed electricity, so we had to transport them both to my other grannie's house. They had to be emptied completely for them to be transportable, so I worry about the health of the bacteria colonies. That, and I have no idea what the sooth might have done to them. I hope it's nothing.
After that there was not much to do, so we both came back to Emma's house. Today we were supposed to have a get together for gameboarding which we decided not to cancel, because well, distracting ourselves from everything was something that we could both use.
It was a great idea. I had an awesome evening playing Game of Thrones.
Now, the surreal part of all this is for me, that aside from two minutes of wibbling on the bus back home, is that I'm not extremely upset about this. We were so very amazingly lucky. It might not sound like that, but it's true.
Things like, what if the fire had started a couple of hours later and no one would have noticed before the whole house burned down. What if my dad hadn't woken up. What if we were not insured (this one is still mostly hopeful, since insurance companies tend to be absolute assholes when you actually need them, but even so). What if it had been a different part of the house we actually need for surviving, like the kitchen. What is ANYTHING.
I can't help thinking this could have been a disaster. It's still going to be hell to fix, (I foresee LOTS of scrubbing in my near future) but it can be done and, eventually, life will go back to normal. I just see the house, the burnt things, my fishes, the whole mess, and the only thing I can fit in my head is that my mom and dad are alive and well.
I really can't think about anything else.
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EDIT: I almost forgot I took some pictures. Among the rubble, there was this plastic dinosaur toy that survived intact, and it was the weirdest and most awesome room-sized post-apocalypse postcard I'll ever get.