I See Fire

I did see fire. Only this time, it was in my room.

It was a sunny Sunday afternoon. I got back from church and tried to arrange one or two. As I don chop living word, make I chop bread too, innit?

All was going well until suddenly, fire erupted from underneath the burner area of the gas cylinder. This was totally unexpected because I was cooking on low heat (a jollof rice hack I got from my girl, Mae’s kitchen.)
I tried to douse the fire with water ( I know. That makes no sense — trying to quench gas fire with water. But that was the only thing that come to mind in that instant. So don’t judge me.)

Obviously, the fire didn’t go out. At this point, my head was all over the place. Fear of burning the room and hostel. How much is the rent I’m paying that I should now burn down everywhere. And the kitchen is very small and choked up— with my roommate’s gas cylinder also present. So things could go really wrong pretty fast.

Thankfully, my babe was around. He found a way to get the cylinder out and onto the corridor in front of the room— and I called for help. He suggested that we use sand to quench it as water was obviously not working. Did I also mention that I had filled the cylinder only a few days before? So the fire had enough to eat. And it ate indeed.

I was shakingly going back and forth to get sand to put it out. Some hostel mates who heard my cry for help and saw the flames were also kind enough to help.

Many moments later, the fire died. After allowing things cool for a bit, I went closer and made to remove the burner from the cylinder. The burner was burnt beyond redemption. Did I also mention that the pot of rice fell and was drenched in water during the process of trying to put out the fire inside? So, food in water, gas on fire— could the day get any better than that?

Then we began to clean up, first the sand outside, and then the messy room. I still had a hard time taking in all that had happened in that short time. I would never have imagined, not while preparing for church, or on my way back, that such an event was going to occur.

I proceeded to call my mum and siblings afterwards, because why not? Help me thank God o, because y'all could have been called for a different reason entirely. My mum had to tell me to find a place to sit and breathe, because my breathing was still heavy.

Till tomorrow, I still can't point to anything as the possible cause of that fire. But I'm just grateful, that one year after, I'm still here, living and breathing. I'm grateful I wasn't alone that day, because— Lord knows I wouldn't have touched that flaming cylinder — and things could have turned out very differently.

I’m really not looking forward to this or any similar event happening to me or anyone else again. It’s not a flex, trust me. I still feel somewhat jittery when I turn on the gas and it burns a little too much in that instant. But I’ll be fine.

So, yeah, that's my story. Enjoy the rest of your week.

Love and wonder 💥