It was a serene night and the wind

was howling . I tossed and turned in

my bed for I could not sleep because
the imminent trial examination would
finally come tomorrow. I was on pins
and needles . The English paper
tomorrow would be undoubtedly my
worst nightmare.
I walked to the toilet/ kitchen/ living
room and passed by my parents and
sisters rooms. They were soundly
asleep as I tiptoed to my
bedroom.This was when I caught a
sniff of something burning. I thought
to myself, Who could be burning
rubbish in this ungodly hours?
Curiosity drove me to the windows
and peered out the dark .
To my horror, I was shocked to see
that it was not open burning.- My

neighbours house was ablaze.

In split seconds, my neighbours
lights were turned on. Obviously,
people had seen the fire. They started
shouting Fire! Fire! . I scrambled
upstairs to get my parents and sister.I
woke them up. My parents held my
little sister who was in a daze and
ran out of the house.
We were stupefied when we saw the
raging fire .There was a commotion as
people were fleeing from their houses
like a colony of ants. I heard children
and women wailing and screaming
and a big crowd had gathered outside
their houses . Amidst the hue and cry,
some people were on their phone
calling for help while others were
throwing water and dust onto the fire.

Some of them even beat the fire with

sticks and rods desperately. All of
these effort were to no avail.
Gradually, the fire engulfed the
house ,helped by the swift winds.
Fire - on the rise- heat - intense.The
paint of the walls- parched- crackled
up.- window panes - dropped-glass
cracked throwing the splinters far and
wide.
Suddenly - heard a high pitch wail neighbour- cried My baby! My son
is still in the house! Help ! Someone
please help!- Huge and high column
of smoke - rose into the air.
- heart ached - heard her cries- . - was
not sure when had I mustered the
courage- run into the burning house.
-Choked for air - heat and smoke-

blurred my vision .- groped around screamed for my neighbours son ,

Ah Boy! Ah Boy! Where are you!
Help! Help! heard - weak voice desperately for help .
Ran towards - sound- found him trapped in the room .- grabbed him dashed for the door - ceiling crumbled
and fell down right behind us.
- got out of the house - my mother ran
towards us.- suffocating smoke and
burning heat - two of us - fell on the
ground - exhausted.- heard the shrills of sirens- the
ambulance and fire brigade- arrived at
the site. Paramedics - carried my
neighbours son and me - ambulance.
- last thing I saw before I lost my
consciousness / collapsed- my
mothers worried face.

Woke up on the bed in a hospital parents hugged - told me that - ........

I was told - firefighter - put out the
fire - two and a half hours- struggled
hard - nerve of steel - extinguish the
high flames - Fire was caused by - .....
It was fortunate - no casualty - fire.
- was - hero but I failed to attend the
examination the next day.