I have to write this to pay tribute to my dog, Kiko for saving property and possibly, lives. It was all quiet and the whole village was fast asleep when Kiko, my Chinese Shar-pei went berserk, barking endlessly, jumping up and down. This frenzy was enough to wake up Noel, my relative who is quartered in a house I own just across the street. I awoke on the sound of a steel gate opening, in addition to the hysteria that Kiko had kicked up, thinking a burglar had broken in.
As I gleaned through my front glass window, I could see a strange orange glow reflect on the wall of the small one-story structure across the street which I use as on office occasionally. When I went to check it out, I met an animated Noel at my front garage frantically motioning to the house immediately next to our right side.
The object of his concern was not visible to me at the time because my house has a frontage of about 12 meters with a setback of about 3 meters from the perimeter wall on both sides. It happened that the perimeter wall I had with the house on the right side is some kind of a fire wall because it adjoins a den of my house that opens to my garage. At the back of this den is an enclosed garden that can be accessed from my living room through a glass door. The perimeter wall on this living room garden is only 6 feet high with simulated bamboo made of 2” diameter PVC pipes painted green.
I ran to the street to get a clear view of the house immediately on our right and the reason for Noel’s panic was immediately apparent: the house was on fire and the residents were not there. Since the fire was in the early stages, my instinct was to rush in and put it out. But I knew I had to resort to other means after several kicks i made on the steel & cyclone wire gate did not budge it.
We had decided that as I try to call the fire station, Noel would take the car to drive down to it about 3 to 4 kms away. As usually happens in extreme situations Murphy's law kicked in. This is an adage that says: "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong". We cannot find the Fire’s phone number. This was easy – call the Police’s number.
The next few moments passed in excruciatingly slow-motion. But it could not have been much more than 10 minutes from my reckoning that flashing lights and wailing sirens broke the eerie state of trance that seemed to have enveloped the few spectators that began milling around the area. An Emergency Response vehicle arrived followed by a lone fire-truck.
One can judge that the fire crew of less than 10 men are professionals of the highest caliber. They went down quietly from the truck, set-up their equipment, and proceeded to do a job. A fireman approached us and in a calm and quiet demeanor asked if we knew of people inside. He then went in to challenge the conflagration which by now had reached the roof. A few moments later, there was a request for us to call the local electric utility to disconnect the power. A fireman sustained an electric shock as he water-hosed the house. He shook it off with a strong jerk of the hand.
Devoid of any media fanfare which accompanies every fire situation in Manila, watching these firemen in the dead of night do their job is like watching commandos and other elite units of the great armed services of the world like the Israelis, the British and the Americans.
Everything was over in 30 minutes. Noel had told me later that as he approached the fire station, the fire truck was on its way out and driver had shouted to him that they already knew. The call we made to the Police station had in fact been acted upon responsibly.
Talk of public servants. Are these Sorsoganons the stereo-type government employees that media never fail to bash? Or are they more the exception to the rule? I can only say that they are Filipinos in the truest sense. I can imagine what could have happened if they had delayed 5 minutes. Fire could have crossed through the perimeter wall of my garden, which was not a fire wall. There was a big tree in that spot. Or it could have crossed to the house on the other side of the burning house. It only had a 4-foot high masonry fence and its residents had already abandoned their house, seeking shelter in my garage.
Talk of heroes. There is hope for the Filipino.
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