It is not an earthshaking experience I want to talk about, but a sudden unexpected happening, last Saturday evening.

I felt unusually tired and got ready to go to bed, for me rather early. Or so I had hoped. I was stopped in my tracks, by an extraordinay crashing and
creaking from the apartment underneath mine.

Somebody seemed hellbent on breaking up furniture, an unusual going on for a peaceful Saturday evening. That noise was followed by shouting and banging in the hallways, followed by a cloud of black smoke creaping in underneath my main door. I started to
cough, and tried to look outside to see what was going on. A very excited voice shouted: “Close your door, put rugs down, don’t let the smoke get in. Open all your windows wide. Stay put. The apartment two floor below is on fire. Don’t panick. Everything is under control".

Let me tell you, everything was under control but my nervous system!

Watching from the window I could hear and see a complete apartment being destroyed piece by piece and thrown down Into the yard, starting with the bed and mattresses where the fire had evidentally started.

Luck would have it that nobody was injured. The careless couple who started the fire in bed were somewhere in the building. It will take many months before the apartment is rebuilt. We will remember this peaceful Saturday for a long time. The awful odor will linger for many months in the elevators, washroom and hallways.

How’s that for a peaceful Saturday night? .

© Gerta Freeman - March 15, 2012