Bunch of shrimps, grilled chicken and two cups of rice. Mmm! Yummy breakfast. What a lovely morning for this Halloween. Everything was almost perfect this morning not until we saw that our neighbor’s house was on fire. And this princess-wanna-be, who received a sweet message from her boyfriend this morning when she woke up, turned into a panic monster.

My sister shouted and called my mom about what we saw. She even couldn’t say that our neighbor’s house was on fire. She just pointed the house and shouted, “Ma! Ma! Ma!” As soon as my mom saw it, she immediately told us to pack our things and to prepare everything that is important. I didn’t know what to do first. Pack my things or call 117? So I went upstairs, looked for my green envelope where all my important documents are and put it on the sofa in our living room. My mom shouted so many things that we have to prepare that I can not remember now. But I hesitated and called 117 first. The phone kept on ringing on my first try. I hung it up and went upstairs again to put all my clothes in a blanket. Then went downstairs after to call 117 for the second time. Thank God my call was answered.

I went outside to look at the burning house and saw that the flames and smoke were getting bigger and bigger. I was getting tachycardic. My mom saw us panicking and told us to relax. Shocks! This is the first time that I experienced such thing in a very unexpected day. I kept going up and down the house and checked the things we had to carry with us.

In the middle of this scenario, I just prayed really hard. I know that He’s the only one I can hold on to. I prayed, I prayed, I prayed… Then I finally heard the alarming sound of the firetrucks. THANK YOU, LORD!

When we went outside of the house, most of our neighbors were gathered in one place and talked about what was happening while watching the fire volunteers to do their work. My mom advised our neighbors to shut their electricity off just to be sure. Most of the houses in our subdivision are old and made of wood that is why my mom worried about this “alipato” thing especially if it gets windy because if and when an alipato drops at our house’s roof, you know what would happen.

After an hour,  everything’s back to normal. I went back to my room and fixed the mess and just slept because I got really tired of the adrenalin rush.

Next time that something like this happens (knock on wood!), I won’t panic again. Reminiscing what just happened this morning and imagining how I and my sister looked like makes me shameful. Hehe! This kind of emergency is different from the emergency that I experience in the hospitals. This is not about saving others’ lives because it’s your job. It’s about saving your own life…