h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

the last week or so!!

Posted Jun 10, 2005

ohh bin a tough few days. dunno where to put this so thought I'd try here..

Last week there was a huge fire, in a light fittings factory four doors down from us.

8.45pm suddenly realised that we could hear odd popping sounds from outside..

8.50pm My son shouts "There's a fire in the factory, it's brilliant" so we all leg it up to his room to check it out. Sure enough a huge plume of black smoke is erupting from the factory, the bit behind the houe is going up, flames shoot into the evening sky. we stand as if rooted to the spot, my partner suddenly thinks "Oooh that blue car down there is right next to it.. Hang on, that's my car!!
there's a hammering on the front door, my Mum enters shouting "Move the car... get the windows shut!!" she's right.. there's asbestos in the roof, I remember the sound from when an old barn went up when I was a kid..

8.55 I watch helpless as him indoors runs across the carpark, brushing the faling ash from his hair...he moves the car around to the side street out of danger..

9.10 Another hammering at the door.. I open it to a young wpc "We need you all out of the house, NOW!!" I run to the back yard and grab the rabbit and his food bowl, they both get dumped in the downstairs loo.. I shut the doors on my flight path out, and check the windows again.. all seems to be shut and battened down... My boyfriends mum and her partner, who came to get a close look at the fire, but I didn't see them come in, tell us to decamp to theirs (6 doors down the street!!)
we all walk to their house, my Mum declines the kind offer of a cuppa and goes home, after ensuring that we'll be fine for the next couple of hours, or so..

9.45. all hope of a quiet night in front of the footy, and a bath seem a bit distant now. We walk back up the street, and see that the fire now seems to be under control. My daughter walks on ahead, and ascertains that a mobile incident command has been set up. I ask a PC if we can go back into the house, and am told that all should be well. But then a fire officer tells us that we have to wait for the transco people to cap off the gas main then we can go back to our houses. everyone from our row, mostly single parents with little children stand on the side road for what seems an on, then a kindly PC tells us that we can al go back to our homes.. we amble back carefully unsure of what could be lurking..

10.45? timings go a bit vague from here, unsure what time the rest happened. But we're all back indoors at this point....

11.45.. another hammering on the door... "We all need you out, NOW!!" the Young wpc is back, funny how she gets the bad news? we walk onto the front... there's a roaring spitting noise, and smoke and flames are now gushing from the front of the factory, the end house on my row looks to be swallowed by the flames, and she's the one with the two babies, thank God I see her then, with the little ones safely asleep in the car at the end of the street.. I look for the elder lady who lives around the corner, and then I see her with a blanket around her.. I look back, the flames are getting higher, I can see that they look as if they are marching up our row of little houses, but I'm not sure if that's just becouse it's dark now...

12.10. Partner's mum insists that we bivvy at hers for the night, in as much as we could sleep with all this going on. the lady who sits on the concil from further up the street gets the keys to the church hall from the priest, and shouts that anyone who is bedless should follow her up there, and she'll get the kettle on!!

12.45. Partner's mum wisely makes tea at her house, and opens a bottle of wine, cava, oddly, although, perhaps that the most vulnerable from our block are out and taken care of is worth drinking to...

1.30.. Partner, Mum, daughter, and Boyfreinds Mum's Partner leave house, in order to have a nose round, perhaps we could get in?

1.50.. I get restless, no one has come back yet, I leave my son on the PC at her house and walk up the street.. My daughter has had emergency cups of tea from the incident room. (Kenco instant)ad is now talking with local youths, who say that young man living near has been taken off in a police car, despite the fact that he couldn't have been near the street at the time the fire started..

2.15.. the fire still rages, the roof has gone in, the street is closed of, and now completely full of fire officers, police etc, someone says they have seen an old lady in an ambulance, which worries me as I haven't seen my neighbour for a good couple of hours.

2.45.. walk around to the front of the factory in the next street, looking for rest of houshold, but find an old mate ho lives over the car park from us and the factory, he say' he han't seen them, but also commiserates for mising the footy and a bath!

3.00 rest of them hove into veiw, so I round up my kids.. (My son has escaped earlier) and head for boyfriends mum's house for a sleep...


7.45.. walk back down the street, all still full of smoke, 2 fire tenders still damping down, street still closed, amazingly quiet out there now, I ask a PC if I can go back to my house, he just shrug like he can't be arsed, so I go into my home, up the stairs, open a window and fall onto bed...

8.45..funny how things add up... Local business man owns the ground the factory stands on, used to own the bit our houses are on too, and things got dodgy with them, that's how we got them from the housing association...
Local businessman has had other properties go up in flames, including the marina, and his Mum' house (at least once!!)
think I'll be annoyed if the young man from our block takes the rap for this... we shall see..

funny how things add up part two.. Local businessman wants to build flats on property next door to burnt down factory, company there already relocated to businesspark owned by?? go on.. you have a guess!!

whether this knowledge stops all the brave strong women on my block feeling nauseous at the sound of a siren, or the smell of bonfires any time soon is another matter...

There .. all off my chest... thanks for listening..

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Latest reply: Jun 10, 2005