FIRE!!!!

We had a close call a few days ago! There was a fire in our top-floor apartment late at night; it was totally God's mercy that we caught it in time and didn't die in our sleep!

I happened to be up late and smelled something burning. From somewhere underneath the water-heater in the bathroom I discovered a trail of smoke coming up out of the floor.

I woke everyone up and we searched out the apartment beneath us, but found nothing was on fire. We realized something inside the floor was burning.

Anyway, we debated whether to call the emergency number because we weren’t sure if it was serious enough. We eventually called, but they said it didn’t seem something to worry about.

Of course we couldn’t sleep after that, so we decided to stay up in shifts to keep an eye on it. I stayed up first and after half an hour it seemed clear to me that something down there was really burning and getting worse! So I called again and told them to come.

The fire department showed up after about 15 minutes, came upstairs, and immediately started tearing our floor and walls apart. They discovered a whole pit of burning embers inside the floor that had been smoldering for hours!

Eventually they put everything out, but left a trail of destruction behind them. They said we were very lucky to have caught it in time and that it was very good we called because it could have burst into flames at any moment. The way our apartment is built, we probably wouldn’t have been able to escape had that happened.

Apparently our water heater was improperly positioned and without sufficient ventilation. After years of use it finally decided to set fire to the floor underneath.

We spent all the next day repairing and cleaning. Our house still smells like smoke several days later, and we wont have hot water for another week probably until we can get a new (concrete) floor placed and our water heater reinstalled.

It was quite a middle-of-the-night adventure! God was really merciful towards us, and we are going to be taking fire safety much more seriously now. I have to say that I was impressed how all the Clefties handled it. We were calm and efficient in the midst of an emergency. It could have been worse!

Thank you God, and thank you fire brigade!

SPF