On Friday night I waited patiently whilst Annette dragged herself home from a DEETYA voluntary redundancy bye-bye party (24 from 80 staff, whew!!). I had a few beers and looked out the rear window to see when she
would be walking up from the station so that I could greet her with a mildly pissed smile. She tricked me, however, and caught a cab home and, after a bit of chatting, she got ready for bed. She too went to the rear window but this time to get a drink of water and, after she gurgled it down, she mumbled, "Philt, is that a fire?" (she was a bit drunk as well). I had a look and, yep, it was - flames were bursting out of a neighbours rear window!! I called 000 and then ran out to see what I could do. Wanda had to come with us as well and so Annette had to carry her around in the ensuing mess. I decided to jump over the back fence, just to get closer to the source, whilst Annette ran round the to the front. As usual, I landed badly with pain shooting up my right leg, but it wasn't bad and I was starting to feel a bit worried about the possible people in the place 'cause it was really alight by this time. There was nothing I could do round the back so I met up with Annette at the front just as the 80 year old woman stepped out the door coughing and asking for help. We got her out of the way a bit and then I went back to check out for a hose. By this time a few other people had come over as well and the next door neighbours realised that a fire was raging nearby - it was very quiet unless you got up close and then it was really, really LOUD. So we got the water on it and then the Fire Engines arrived. The old woman was OK with just a bit of smoke inhalation but she was very lucky. Apparently it was a couple of loose papers, probably whipped up by the winds, falling against a fire. It made me think, I'll tell ya, esecially as the rear windows blew out and the metal parts of the house started being shot out the back. Everyone should have a fire detector in their house NOW.