hOUSE fIRE devastates 1st Opal/Dacudao

It was a normal swing shift (2pm-10pm) that day, one immediate postpartum settled in and stable, and another 2 labouring women- one of which was my responsibility. Nowadays, I give most of my "responsibility" to Brianna, while I oversee her work in the birthroom! She was in with our girL monitoring contractions when I went home quickly to get a pot from our house (to cook our dinner in).

As I'm unlocking the gate to our house I notice some commotion a just down the street, on the corner at Dacudao...as my eyes started to make my brain understand what the heCK is going on, my legs started running toward the screams...and toward the heat. Just two houses down on Dacudao, a house had caught fire and already up in flames at this point. I tried calling 911 but the automated voice operator just kept telling me to dial 117..?! But 117 isn't an emergency number! I was frustrated, to say the leasT. The flames reached the electrical wires, and the power went out. It was around 7pm, and just like that all was dark on 1st Opal, except for the flames that continue to reach higher and higher, as it spread our way to the second floor of another house. It sucks because the houses are primarily made of wood, and they're packed in so tightly...

I always thought that, when faced with a fire like that i'd do what ANYONE in the movies does- run in, save a cat or maybe a baby, come out with smoke and flames behind me looking like I just stepped off the red carpet... (just a little comic relief in the midst of this not-so-nice post). But it didn't exactly work like that. And I was angry. I couldn't do ANYthing. I was helpless. I only watched as the fire consumed more and more of my neighbours homes. SOMEone must have reached 911 because the firefighters did arrive. As you can see in the one pic- in a big coat, shorts, and flip-flops =) I love this country!!

Back at the clinic, our patients had evacuated Mercy, and been transported to another location and Matt and Krys had already been in our house grabbing up laptops and other such valuables, in case the fire couldn't be contained...(funny how NONE of these actions ran through my head as a good idea, i just bolted to the fire, but wasn't really needed there either =S). People were watching in horror, with tears in their eyes as the fire creeped closer to their own homes. Moms were wailing, guys were lugging tvs and other such belongings out of their house just in case. blahhh, it was awfuL to witness. The firefighters worked well and got the fire under control before any done damage was done. Afterwards, people just sat on the adjacent curb staring in disbelief, wondering what to do now, etc. It started pouring rain around 9pm (where was thAT when the fire called?!), i don't know where those people went at that point...hopefully some place dry.