In this life, we just have to be careful so we aren't victims of bad events in a situation. Something happened just this week that could have led to something serious and everyone in the house would be implicated, thereby leading us to write statements at the police station narrating how the ordeal happened. One thing that could be most dangerous is being involved in a fire accident due to a careless attitude on the side of the victim.
Just this Sunday which was three days ago, I was outside with two of my neighbours, a guy and a lady. We were receiving some fresh air because the heat chased us away from our rooms, it was also around 8:30 pm and with that, we were expecting the light to show so I can just go in since I have a standing fan to help blow air on my body. We were chatting and talking about the lady who would be breaking the Guinness Book of Records by cooking for 4 days marathon which was 100 hours. We were already engaged in the discussion when the guy perceived the scent of burning food. We shook it off thinking it was from the hostel very close to us, we continued what we were talking about. I couldn't stop perceiving it too and we decided to check where the scent was coming from because it was beans the person was cooking.
We all went inside and started sniffing through some doors until we got to this lady's room which was opposite my room. We discovered where the burning food was coming from and we tried to call her attention to it as she could have forgotten she was cooking. We knocked on her door silently and called her name several times as we do not want to wake those sleeping up, but there was no answer. "What is happening?", I asked one of us. She already locked her door from the inside and we couldn't open it. We kept calling her name incessantly and no replies. This alerted other neighbours who had gone to sleep and they came out. Some went to her window while the guy and I were banging on her door so hard because we thought it was not something serious at first. "Has the girl slept off?" "why is she not answering us?" "what kind of sleep is this?" I was asking the guy and at the same time getting nervous too because it was already turning into another thing entirely. "May we not be implicated", I said the prayer and everyone chorused an Amen.
The guy also went to her window and at this time, the food had burnt to the extent that smoke filled the whole room. At that point, things were getting out of hand and the situation wasn't something to joke about because I was already laughing in disbelief, "how could a human being sleep so deep not to hear how we were banging her door so hard, calling her through the window and still didn't hear us". When we could not bear it anymore as the smoke was beginning to penetrate outside, the guy with force kicked the door and it opened leaving some part destroyed, who cared?
Lo and behold, we were more surprised that this lady was still sleeping and didn't know what was going on in her room. The guy went to switch off the gas first, then went to tap her while naked with nothing on her. The guy had seen her boobs already and immediately, I had to call him outside so he doesn't keep staring and taking advantage of the situation.
She managed to wake up but went back to sleep again while we were explaining things to her. We all looked at each other and felt for her. We asked if she took a sleeping pill and she said no that she was sick and weak. "Why? What happened to you? You could have just slept without cooking since you know your situation, or better still, try to call our attention to what you were cooking so we can help you. We all are family here and you can speak to us". I said all these to her.
Before then, this lady is just a fresher who was just admitted into the University last month and she is staying with her cousin but has travelled to another state for her teaching practice, leaving her alone in the house. She started going for night reading in the school for weeks which I guess had effects on her and made her sick that Sunday. One thing about being weak is that it makes you go into a deep sleep without knowing what is wrong or happening around you until you are back to your conscious self. We felt pity for her and advised her to go for treatment at the school health clinic before it get worse the next day.
Thank God we were around that night to know what was happening and immediately saved her from being burnt inside. She was even suffocating when she woke up. We all started thanking God that things didn't go beyond what had happened, because who would want to explain himself or herself at the police station? Besides, we are talking about life here. We called the cousin and explained things to her. She couldn't believe what happened and she thanked everyone for saving her sister from the smoke and the house not getting caught up in fire due to the burnt beans on the gas as we could perceive the scent from outside and intervened on time.
Thanks for your time on my blog.
Thumbnail Image by Jill Burrow from pexels, edited on Canva
