Towering Inferno!

Sweat dripped from my brow as I slowly walked through the unfamiliar hallway. The splintered remains of the door behind me is soon engulfed by the horrifying flames. I come out into a lounge room; fire is flickering up the walls as I search the room for any signs of life. A small child is huddled in the corner, coughing violently. An almighty crash drowns out the roaring of fire as a solid wooden beam, drenched in flames falls through the roof and lands just in front of me. The fire greedily devours the carpet around it and starts to search for more fuel. Realising the peril that I faced, I pulled my shirt over my mouth and ran towards the crouching child. Tendrils of smoke work its way into my mouth and down my throat. My lungs seize up as it tries to expel the smoke. I stumble. Landing next to the child, I quickly grab him and lift him over my shoulder. With the boy secure on my shoulder, I start to look for a means of escape. The door I kicked in earlier is now a raging inferno. For only a split second, I feel the softest breeze on my check before it’s replaced with scorching wind. I turn towards the source and run. More smoke enters my lungs, I feel my eyes start to water and my lips crack due to the heat. I slam against the wall and slowly work my way towards the door at the back. As I step through the doorway, my body starts to tingle. With some unknown instinct, I hurl myself to the ground and shield the child with my body. BOOM! Fire had worked its way towards the gas cylinders and ignited them. Glass shards are sprayed everywhere and the house starts to billow huge clouds of thick, black smoke into the clear sky. I crawl away from the ruins of the house, will sirens echo through the hills. I sigh with relief, knowing that we will now be safe.

Ok, I’m sure you all realise that the story I just wrote is a tad exaggerated. I didn't burst into the house as much as I stood at the end of the driveway and watched the firefighters battle the flames and luckily, no one was home. The burning house was true though. At 3pm, I noticed the fire trucks, at the end of my street a house was on fire. It was three doors away from me, but it was close enough to make me nervous. I couldn't see the fire but I could see the smoke rising up. Must have been a terrible thing for the people of that house to hear that their home is now a smouldering pile of ash. Actually, it wasn't quite that bad, they lost half the house but most of their possessions would be damaged by smoke. The worse part was I couldn't hear a smoke alarm until I was at the end of my driveway, so I wonder how long their lives were burning for before someone actually noticed it. This makes me start to wonder what possessions would be grabbed first if my house was on fire. I didn't really have to think very much about it, I would grab the letter I received from jess on my birthday, it contains photos from her that mean a lot to me. The second thing I would grab is this shoebox in my wardrobe; it contains various small items that mean a lot to me. I realised then that everything in my room is just materialistic, and while they might have some small memory behind them, they are just replaceable stuff. Maybe we should all start to appreciate everything that happens to us and everything that we have that can't be replaced, like friends and family. Because who knows when it will all disappear.