My neighbour's house burnt down Saturday night!
May 17th 2010 05:42
my version of Joe's house fire!
There was a frantic knocking at my front door, late Saturday night, I never get visitors at night, and after I had a prowler the night before, snooping around the recently vacated house next to mine and then around my own house, I was concerned, and warily opened the door.
Peter, my neighbour on the other side was babbling on, I was trying to understand the gist of what he was saying, but then I heard the crucial words, "FIRE!", "Joseph's house!"
I bolted out the door, not stopping to look for keys to lock it, which was remiss of me, especially since the prowler incident, but I had stopped thinking and just flew into action.
I was surprised to see the street filled with fire trucks, (I heard them minutes earlier, but thought they were passing by on the highway, which happens a lot). The air was ablaze with red and blue flashing, hoses snaking everywhere and there it was, a few doors from my home, poor Joseph's house, fire furiously funnelling out of the dormer window.
I ran to a cop, he had lots of pips on his epaulettes, a braided hat, an inspector I think, I anxiously asked, "Where's Joseph? Where's Jane? Did you get them out?"
All this cop said, in a dry stoney faced manner, was, "Keep back" and started walking at me with his arms out, as if I was a mob. In fact, I was standing safely in the middle of the street, not at the kerb where arguably it was dangerous, however, I understood that they needed to draw a line somewhere, except, others were standing nearer and he completely ignored them.
This inspector also didn't even bother answering my questions. A reasonable person would have responded, 'Sorry Sir, I cannot make any comment'. Or, 'Yes, he is out and they are searching the house.' But he didn't say anything and he wore a smirk.
I stood there thinking, so what does this mean? Then it then dawned on me, that the fire had been going for awhile, obviously, but my friends were nowhere to be seen...
I then thought , damn, they are dead. They had dinner at my house the night before, we had a lovely time, ranting on about all sorts of nonsense. Now....
Then I saw a group of firemen come around the side of the house carrying someone on a rescue wire stretcher, they laid that person on the front lawn, most then walked away, two stayed at the body, bending over it whlie kneeling beside it, but no furious CPR movements, small careful ones, I couldn't see who it was, nor if they were alive.
Some time then passed, as different police came up and asked the same questions of me, "Did you see it start?" "Were you a witness to anything here?" etc It began to dawn on me, after a number of police asked the same thing, that they were very young officers. It was starting to appear like a training session, I suppose they must learn on the job, it makes sense, but at the time it seemed inappropriate, and I was distracted, as I was convinced my two friends were dead.
Then, the first of two miracles, Joseph walked out from behind a tender truck, towards his girlfriend, who I now realized was the one lying in the rescue stretcher on the lawn. Thank God he is safe I thought, but now, what of Jane, and where is her beloved little dog?
I eventually got to speak to Joe, Jane was alive, but badly affected by smoke inhalation, she had been found collapsed, unconscious on the floor of the loungeroom. When she became conscious, she began to thrash around, she bit the hand of a fire officer, several men tried to hold her down. It was then I realized there were no paramedics around, and no ambulance.
It took 45 minutes for an ambulance to arrive!!!!
45 MINUTES!!!!
I live in the Blue Mountains, and there are a lot of car accidents on the highway, terrible accidents, killing and maiming, and the ambulances always seem to get there reasonably quickly.
So why did they not come to my friend's assistance? Jane could easily have died, with the continuing after affects of the poisonous fumes. Luckily she hung on and they got her to hospital.
While this ridiculous wait occurred, I and numerous other neighbours asked what was going on with the ambulance, was there another major accident elsewhere? But it seemed not, and the police refused to take Jane to hospital themselves in the back of one of their 4WDs.
So, these questions remain unanswered, and they need to be answered!
This means, if someone has a heart attack, they are as good as dead up here on the mountain.
So Prime Minister Rudd, with all your political posturing and grandstanding, about helping the the hospital system and medical access in our country, will your plans also include us up here, or not?
My pal Joseph is staying at my house, along with the dog, who we searched for in vain for hours, but, as we talked it all through in my kitchen, after coming back from the hospital at 4am, I heard a whine at my backdoor, and there she was! The 8 month old pup had somehow found her way to safety, she had only been to my house once, the night before, so there was the third miracle.
There was one other small but important miracle, for Jane; her stick insects survived the ordeal, amazing creatures to look at, they literally look like leaves on a stick. They were a bit singed and wobbly, but were alive!
They are here too, in my sunroom. They seemed to have recovered, as they are hanging upside down from the roof of their cage now, instead of lying down flat and motionless, as they were yesterday.
Jane is still in intensive care, we went to see her yesterday, she couldn't talk, she had tubes down her throat, a respirator attached and heavily sedated, but when roused, she asked for pen and paper, and wrote asking about her pets, all safe, we told her, she fell back asleep.
This morning, Joe tried to get in touch with his insurance company, it is run by his bank. Now this is bizarre, you cannot ring them directly, there is no phone number for them, no name of a contact that the branch manager can give you and no mailing address!
They will send a fax, to his branch, once notified by the manager. They will not give him a copy of his policy either, which, of course, was burnt in the fire.
We wait to see what these people will do to help him, as he is homeless. Today I told Joe, once he gets his house rebuilt, for it is all but destroyed, he better change his insurance company!
In closing, I say this; check your house insurance policy, read all of it and ask questions about what you do not understand, and make sure you have enough cover to replace everything in it, contents insurance includes furnishings; carpets, drapes, TVs, fridges, etc! Take photographs of everything and keep a copy somewhere safe, such as with your bank or solicitor.
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Comment by Michaelie
Flick Wit
Sorry to hear about your friend Jane, must have been heartening for her to regain consciousness and have the strength to bite someone though! Glad everyone made it out, including the stick insects.
Does make one take stock of plans in place in case disaster strikes, insurance and so forth...
Hope they have made some headway now with sorting it out.
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
yes it was terrible, Jane has recovered, yet still suffers depressive teary bouts, she is living with her daughter, idiot Joe didn't tell her family what had happened, they found out from Jane when she was still in intensive care!
Anyhoo, it has been enlightening, regarding insurance claims etc. Insurance companies will try every trick in the book to fleece you out of your rights, Joe had to get a top notch lawyer to get them to pay for his re-housing by threatening them with a writ!
cheers and tanx for commenting
fog