Emergency Friday

For the past two Fridays in a row I have called 000. Last Friday it was for the police, after witnessing an older man being verbally abused and punched in the face as I was walking home in the middle of the day. The man had blood pouring out of his nose and the attacker was not letting up so I called the police and waited around the corner (out of the attacker's sight) for the police to come. It was very scary at the time because I had Elizabeth with me and was afraid that if I was seen by the attacker, they might come after me. The police came fairly quickly so that was good and the man was okay.

Then yesterday, I was cooking dinner when I heard a smoke alarm going off. I was a bit annoyed because I had just got Elizabeth down for her afternoon sleep (at 4pm!) and didn't want her to wake up. I didn't think much of it because there is always an alarm going off around here. Either a car alarm or fire alarm from one of the half-way houses down the street. The alarm had been going off for about three minutes when I decided to open our balcony door to let some of the cooking smells out of our unit. As I did, I smelled smoke. I went into our stairwell and hear that the alarm was coming from one of the units in our stairwell. I smelled smoke in the stairwell and discovered it was coming from the unit downstairs. I banged on their door but no one was home. I ran back upstairs, grabbed my phone and dialled 000. I panicked thinking that the whole building may collapse so I grabbed Elizabeth from her cot and went downstairs and outside. Another neighbor came out and we watched the smoke from the window increasing in volume until the fire brigade arrived. I must say it was quite exciting to watch the event unfold. The firemen had to break the door to get in. Other firemen carried a large industrial fan into the stairwell to get rid of the smoke. They said the stove had been left on. Meanwhile my stove upstairs was on with food cooking on it! Didn't think to turn it off in my hurried exit.....

Thankfully, there wasn't a fire in the end and everyone was safe. But I am worried about next Friday - will I have to call the ambulance this time?