“Dare, wake up!” my mother’s voice woke me up.
It was 3:45am. It sounded like a cause for emergency. What could be the reason for her waking me up?
“Get up, get up! Let’s go!” she said quickly as she went on to wake the rest of my siblings.
I managed to get up, though still feeling a little sleepy. As I made it to the living room I could see some of our luggage on the floor and a few on the cushions.
“Are we packing on such short notice?” I thought to myself.
In a few seconds my mom was out with all of my siblings.
“Oya, park everything outside!” she said in a panicked tone.
I was still trying to wrap my head around what was going on. I and my siblings carried the luggage lying around the living room as we made our way through the front door. On reaching outside, I saw a burning bright light at my far right. It was a great inferno at the other side of our fence. The light was so bright that it could be seen hundreds of miles away. I stared at the fire in shock. The magnitude of the flames was not like any I have ever seen in my life.
My dad had already started the car engine waiting for us.
“Please hurry up!” he clapped his hands as he beckoned on us.
“You heard your father,” my mom said.
She quickly opened the car doors and threw into the car the bag she was holding and rushed to join my dad at the front seat. The rest of us threw in the bags in our hands at the back seat and got in.
Our neighbors were all out.
“Fire o, Jesus!” mama Ebube, who was my direct opposite neighbor, wailed.
The whole compound was in a state of pandemonium. At that point all that everybody could think of was how to make it to safety.
The gate was already wide open. My dad reversed the car like a professional driver who raced at the tracks. It was like being in the same car with Dom (Vin Diesel) in Fast and Furious. In less than a second we were already outside the gate, my dad turned the wheel towards the left and zoomed off.
The car was in motion until we made it to a shop not too far from the house, that was where my dad stationed the car. The flames were still very visible even at that distance. That was the first time I was witnessing a fire outbreak that great. It was a foam factory beside our compound that had caught fire. It was the literal expression of “Fire on the mountain” because the fire rose up to a very great height while people were running all over the place. I still remember how terrified I was that night.
Some men that were brave enough went to put out the fire. My dad and some other men in our compound joined them.
“Please be careful, honey,” my mom said to my dad as he left us in the car.
Fire like that which erupted from a foam industry where chemicals of different kinds were used which was part of cause of the fire was not advisable to use ordinary water to try and put out, as it may not be effective enough to tackle the situation. So, they had to mix the water with detergent. Thankfully, there was a sachet water factory not too far from the foam industry where the fire had broken out. Everybody carried a common weapon — bags of sachet water — and matched to where the fire was burning.
It was really an intense battle. The whole thing was playing in front of my eyes like a movie. The men raged violently against the fire with torn bags of sachet water in their hands.
After about an hour or so, the unofficial firefighters prevailed against the fire. The wailing and the noises gradually began to reduce. There was a feeling of relief in the atmosphere. The sachet water factory had lost an amount of water that would have taken them at least four consecutive days of selling to do so, all in one night. But it didn’t matter because lives were saved and there was minimal damage of properties in houses nearby, except for the foam factory itself which was left in a very terrible state.
Shortly after, my dad joined us in the car and we drove back home. Some of the neighbors were already in the compound while some were on their way. We were lucky to meet the compound in one piece given that the fire was raging at the other side of our fence. Though the fire was put out I still felt tensed and so did my sibling. Our eyes remained wide open till it was daybreak.
At school I told my friends what I had witnessed at that early hours of the morning. They were amazed. It’s the kind of incident I don’t hope to witness the second time.
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