It is almost 2 am on Thursday and I am in pain and unable to sleep. A few hours old scalds on four of my left fingers and my right arm are burning. My house still smells like smoke plus I am reliving every second I was trapped in that fire so I can't close my eyes.
The size of the scald burns I got on my right arm...
Around 4:30 pm, I lit my small gas cylinder and put on some cooking oil in a pan to warm up my cold chips for an evening snack. I thought as the cooking oil heated up, I could get a roll of tissue from a kiosk right outside our apartments gate.
My mind was carried away by the warmth of the evening sun and because of how cold my house is -I live on the ground floor- the cooking oil I left on my gas escaped my mind.
A couple of neighbors noticed smoke coming from house ten minutes later and when I heard them complaining, my mind flew back to the cooking oil I had left on my gas. I rushed to my house and opened the door unknowing that my pan had already caught fire. A large bang followed as my window gave in to whatever pressure was in the house, with its glasses flying outwardly. The fire then crawled up on my walls in a split second consuming decorations with its angry bright orange flames. Within two seconds it had converged at the ceiling heading towards me as the wind blowing through the broken glasses sped up that process.
The door side of the walls... how those wires didn't catch fire is still a mystery to me. Those two umbrellas hanging there had huge burn holes :(
I reached for the partitioning curtains that are at Melvin's bed to cover my face from what I knew was my death screaming my lungs out for someone to open my door because I couldn't see. The dark cloud of smoke hovering over me before I covered my face couldn't let my sight's stamina through. A neighbor I will forever appreciate came and knocked down my door open... She then went on to fish me from my burning house dragging me out to set my lungs free.
From less than 30 seconds in a burning house to inhaling air, tears streamed down my face as I replayed my scariest 30 seconds in disbelief over and over again in my head. I couldn't believe I was alive as I couldn't believe that I walked out of a burning house with minor burns considering how badly off things could've gone for me in those few seconds of my life.
That 30 Seconds episode reminded me of death and how easy it is to die. Of how death lurks in every breath we take in and we can never be sure when it can just decide to pop in. I may be unable to get that hellish image from my mind but I am also extremely grateful to alive and in toleratable pain. Cheating death is scary shit!
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