Fire

I have noticed that it pretty much always smells like something is burning in this country.  A few nights ago, I was totally convinced that someone was standing right behind my house smoking a cigarette.  I did what anyone would do, grabbed my scariest looking knife and went to investigate.  Don't worry, My landlady lives behind my house on the opposite side of the fence.  I could have yelled.  Well, the cat who has decided to hang out in my yard hissed at me, but that was it.  I guess my neighbors were burning something.

 While smelling smoke is a normal occurrence and seeing smoke even less so, actually laying eyes on the flames, is almost unheard of.  I don't know exactly how long ago this was, but I feel like it happened sometime in the last 2 weeks.  It was nearly dark and I was out trying to finish up some errands.  I wanted to stop by the DVD shop on my way home to pick up some new stuff to watch.  It is on a one-way street.  I turned and headed down the street.  I didn't make it very far before I saw a woman running towards me.  I quickly noticed that not only was she running, but she was motioning for me to turn around and yelling.  I don't know for sure what she was yelling because it was all in Lao, but I imagine it went something like this, "TURN AROUND NOW.  SAVE YOURSELF WHILE YOU STILL CAN.  DO NOT GO ANY FARTHER ON THIS STREET.  YOU WILL REGRET IT."  I didn't stop and turn around so after I had passed her, she decided to throw one more yell my direction.  I am relatively sure it was, "YOU CRAZY FOREIGNER.  YOU ARE GOING TO DIE.  I TRIED TO WARN YOU."  Really, I have no idea what she was yelling, but it seemed serious. 
 
Instead of turning around, I decided to just park where I was and walk the rest of the way to the shop.  There isn't a ton of excitement in this city, so it seemed foolish to just turn around and not see what all of the commotion was about.  There was quite a crowd gathered outside of the DVD shop (it seemed there were many people picking up movies).  They were all looking up the street at the electrical fire taking place and the attempt of a few people on a third story balcony to put it out.  They were spraying it with a fire extinguisher.  They would spray for a little while, stop, the flames would appear again, most of the people in the crowd watching (there was a big crowd) would scream or gasp or gasp and scream, then they would spray again.  I watched this for a bit, found it to be anti-climactic and decided to go get my movies before everyone else decided to.  That plan didn't work.  A big family came back in and were talking about the fire and movies and trying to decide.  All of a sudden, a really loud set of screams came from outside.  The young boy decided to run out and take a look (I am not so dramatic as I used to be, so I stayed inside).  He came back in saying that the fire was HUGE.  So we all went back outside to look at it.  It turned out that the HUGE fire was actually a street light that came on while we were inside the shop but was somewhat hidden because of the immense cloud of fire extinguisher smoke in the air.   I went back in to finish shopping.

I made my selections and left.  I decided that I would stay just a little bit longer because it was a little bit fascinating.  I have no idea how many fire extinguishers they went through.  Eventually, the power went out on that side of the street.  Everyone was covering their noses and mouths.  The fire did go out and stay out long enough for me to decide I had had enough excitement.  I jumped on my motorbike and went back the way I came.  I was hoping to see the yelling woman so I could give her the, "See.  I made it just fine" look but I didn't.  As I turned off the street, I noticed three things.  First, I heard a very faint siren that could only belong to the fire engine.  A little late, but they were on their way.  Second, there was a remarkable fog in the street behind me from all of the extinguishing.  Finally, I really need to quit breaking my cameras.  Love, M.

P.S.  I wanted to give this post a more creative title.  I can't figure out what a fire engine sounds like written down.  I even googled it and didn't get a satisfactory answer.