My mobile rings “Your apartment is on fire!” With a beating heart I drive to the apartment block, as I pull up outside there is a mass of people just standing about, the air is thick with the smell of smoke and the blue light from the fire engine is casting a strange glow on the scene.
I park the car halfway up the curb abandoning it; the scene reminds me of something that I have seen in a movie and I have the strangest feeling that I am almost watching myself. I run up to the security guard and ask him what is going on, he tells me there has been a fire in apartment 322, the realisation that it is my apartment and I hadn’t misheard makes me want to vomit.
He asks me if I am the owner and he introduces me to a man who is in charge of the incident. Once the all clear is given I can enter the block. I walk in and the entrance hall floor is covered with black water, I tell myself that it is probably normal and it may not be that bad. The smell is horrendous and the smoke seems to stick to you, he tells me that the damage is bad, I half smile praying he is joking looking for a glint in the eye, a smirk or anything!
The look on his face tells me he is not and the nerves in my stomach seem to do a leap. As the lift doors open I feel like I am in slow motion. The front door has been forced off and is leaning against the wall, everything is in blackness as the fire has burnt the electrics. A torch light shines on the devastation, every room has been damaged, there is no ceiling in the kitchen, all that is left of the toaster is a metal frame, all our lovely things damaged or destroyed, I want to cry but I can’t, I just feel sort of fuzzy, I tell myself no one was hurt, no one died and we should be thankful for that, but I don’t feel thankful I feel totally devastated and don’t know where to begin or what to do……….
This happened last year, it was a very stressful time and we weren’t always given the right information; we lost money because we were covered for building insurance but not contents. Don’t go through what we went through – fully insure your properties and make sure you know what you are covered for. Understand and read your policy documents, if you need assistance we know of companies who can give you policies in English – make your life easier!
Put smoke alarms in your homes/apartments and make sure the batteries work. We were lucky that no one was hurt in this incident. You may not have an alarm system in your complex so smoke alarms could be your only warning! So take them seriously, we all think it won’t happen to us!