House on Fire!

We had a very eventful week in our complex last week...not in a good way! First we were without water from Sunday morning. A water pipe had burst nearby, but a boulder was blocking access to the area so we remained without water till late on Tuesday afternoon. When you have 4 kids, having no water is not a fun adventure. But the week was not done with us yet! On Thursday, while cooking, I received a call from my neighbour Mary, who had a a distinctly panicked tone in her voice, asking me if I was home. When I said I was she told me to grab the kids and get out of the house because the neighbour's house just one house away from me was on fire! I immediately turned off the stove, called to Bilaal to come downstairs and help me get Sumayah and Yusuf in the car, while I strapped Uthmaan into his car seat. As we pulled out of the garage I saw the smoke in the air, I could smell the fire, and saw all the complex neighbours (among other strangers I didn't recognise), standing around looking toward my neighbour's house. Even passersby outside our complex on the other side of the road were standing staring at the blazing fire, which had already broken through the roof. It was quite a frightening sight and an even more frightening thought that I while I was indoors cooking, I was blissfully unaware of all that was happening just one house away!

I drove to the top of the complex and parked at the top parking area when the owner of the house arrived. There was nobody home when the fire started and her daughter was the first to return home from school to the fire. Random strangers who drove past our complex and noticed the fire came in to see if they could help and she, remarkably calm for a teenager, had them carry as much of their belongings as possible from downstairs, into the opposite neighbour's garage. But when her mom arrived, she was already in a state of panic having received a call from ADT informing her that her house was on fire. On route she could see the smoke in the distance and as a result drove into another car. She didn't cause serious damage and she says she tried to tell the driver to just take her licence and number and call her at a later stage because she needed to get home, even pointing to the smoke.  But apparently this man was not interested in her personal drama and insisted on writing down all her details meticulously. So by the time she pulled into the complex and saw, the now out-of-control flames ripping through her roof, she was completely distressed to say the least! While parking up there we also saw the fire engines driving past the complex in the wrong direction! They didn't know how to get  to the entrance of the complex so they had to continue in that direction to a point where they could turn around. By the time they arrived most of the other neighbours had been notified and were already home. There was police, ambulance, 4 fire engines and armed response. Even residents from the neighbouring complex walked over to see what was happening. 

Mary (the neighbour who called me) also has young kids, so we bundled them all together in the boot of my car with the box of toys she had with her and could do nothing but wait while the disaster unfolded. In the end, all that remained of the first floor was a charred shell of a building. While the downstairs section was untouched by the fire, the water from the fire hoses had damaged almost everything else. We had to leave our cars at the top and walk back home while the emergency vehicles finished up their work. By the end of the day, when the kids were all in bed, a wave of complete exhaustion just rushed over me. But getting to bed, all I could think of was my neighbour and how grateful I was to have a safe, warm bed to climb into that night with all my belongings intact, but most importantly, that all my loved ones were safe and comfy...

Keeping the kids entertained

View from outside the complex

emergency response

fire fighters finishing off

view from my house

the tragedy that remains

Fire Scare!

On Saturday night one of those things happened that I never thought ever would ... being such a uber responsible supermom and all (read with much sarcastic undertone). Yaasier had a lussie for popcorn, but seeing as all the microwave popcorn was up, I had to go back to old school oil-in-the-pot method. I have been very scatterbrained these last couple of weeks I don't know why, but this was really the cherry on top. I put the oil in the pot and smugly announced my old-fashioned popcorn-making knowledge by telling Yaasier that the secret to good pot popcorn is to let the oil get hot before adding the popcprn kernels so that the kernels don't absorb too much oil before popping. So while waiting for the oil to heat up I watched a bit of telly. Not long and I suddenly saw a faint smoke waft pass the light! I asked Yaasier very ignorantly, "what's that smoke?"... and then it dawned on me, "Oh shit! I forgot about the oil on the stove!"

I ran to the stove and saw the smoke filling up under the glass pot lid. Now I know how fire operates and despite thinking that it would never happen to me, I also always thought I would know exactly how to react in the event it did. The thing is when your fight/flight mechanism kicks in you sometimes tend to forget valuable knowledge. See when I saw the smoking pot what I should've done is turn off the stove, place a wet cloth over the lid and immediately take it outside to cool down before opening the lid.

Instead my immediate reaction when I saw the pot was to remove the lid and put on the extractor fan... DOH! How dumb was I? Anybody who knows the first thing about fire knows that the worst thing you can do for a potential fire is to expose it to oxygen! Not only did I expose the burning oil to oxygen, but I extracted the flammable fumes further into the air! So of course the pot caught alight!

Fortunately I quickly regained some good sense and gave Yaasier a cold lid to cover the flame with and turned off the exctractor fan, and removed the pot outside. Of course by then the whole downstairs was filled with smoke. Yaasier brought the huge fan down, we opened all the windows and doors and made sure all the doors to the rooms upstairs were closed so that the smoke couldn't penetrate the rooms where the children were sleeping. My eyes were burning, my throat was burning, but worst of all while we sat in the cold waiting for the smoke to clear I was wandering aimlessly up and down feeling racked with guilt and completely useless and irresponsible. It may have been a small little flame that was completely controllable, but I kept thinking that it could have been so much worse! I was so ashamed and upset with myself for allowing such a totally avoidable thing to happen. I almost didn't want to blog about this, but then I thought 'suck it up Tasneem, others can learn from your stupidity'. So here are some very important tips that hopefully nobody will ever need:

When discovering a fire or potential fire in the home:

1. Stay CALM
2. Assess the severity and if you have any doubt whatsoever that you can get it under control, evacuate the house immediately!
3. If you are absolutely certain that you can tackle the small blaze, assess the type of fire and act accordingly

There are 3 main types of fires:

• Paper/wood/clothing/other material: it is safe to douse this type of fire with water
• cooking oil/fat: DO NOT open the lid of the pot, if the pot is already open when a flame erupts, either put a lid over it or throw a damp cloth over the fire and turn off the stove. NEVER throw water over this type of fire, the burning fat will splatter possibly harming you or even spreading the fire!
• Electrical: FIRST switch off the mains! The best way to tackle an electrical flame is to cover it with BICARBONATE OF SODA. NEVER throw water on an electrical flame or one that is near to an electrical socket or you WILL SHOCK!

Finally it is important to know how to react in the event of minor skin burns. It is handy to have some burnshield spray or swabs on hand. In the old days when you burned yourself on the stove or the iron the older generation always used to put butter on the wound... WRONG!WRONG!WRONG!!! this is the worst thing you can do! Butter coats the burn and creates an ideal environment for bacteria thereby increasing the chance for infection. You also should not put ice on the burn as it may damage the skin further and do not put a bandage on the wound as it will delay healing time. The best thing you can do is to keep the area under cold running water for at least 5 minutes. If the burn is very minor you may then afterward cover the area with a healing cream such as aloe vera for some relief and to speed up the healing process.

Of course it all also depends on the severity of the burn and the cause. You can visit this link for more info: First Aid for Burns

All that being said, Prevention is Better than Cure! So please learn from my stupid mistake and DO NOT FORGET about the oil on the stove!

Love Me!