Fantasy vs Reality

To a lot of women and some men, firemen are considered hot. They're fit and they risk their lives to save people, pets and property. Physical attractiveness, danger and service for good... what's not to like?





With that in mind, one of my silly fantasies has always been being rescued from a burning building by a gorgeous fireman. I'm a bit embarrassed for being so cliched. ;-)


Fantasy:
I'm looking particularly gorgeous one evening as I'm at home, painting a masterpiece. I smell wood burning, mmmmm... hickory.

"Oh! 'Tis a wee fire!"

I go to my window and a firetruck pulls up and unloads a crew:




Reality:
I wake up out of a deep sleep to the sounds of a muffled alarm (hard of hearing, me) and not until starting to smell smoke and hearing pounding on my door does it register in my sleepy, deaf head that this might be not be a false alarm.

I have morning face, bad breath and greasy bed hair. I leave my flat wearing running shoes, jeans, my PJs top and a jacket. The smoke in the corridor smells disgusting and I run to the stairwell.

(photo unavailable!)


Fantasy:




Reality:
At the emergency exit, I meet five or six elderly folks trying to get down a flight of steps. I proceed to help each of them down and across a swampy path away from the building. One lady has no shoes on, some still in their jammies. It's very cold out. Everyone is a bit freaked out.


Fantasy:
I am brought down to the ground and given mouth-to-mouth... ya know, just in case. ;-)




Reality:
I see firemen putting up a ladder. They're rescuing a Princess. A cat called Princess. Awwwww.... still, I'm a bit pissed off, cos that cat should have been me. ;-)





Fantasy:
Mr Fireman and I have a romantic meal and an evening of wild sex. :-)



For the wild sex video, please send me your credit card details.


Reality:
The fire was so hard to put out, they had pizza and coffee delivered. Yep, it took that long.




I'm now a 'displaced person' - I left with what I was wearing, my meds, my laptop and my mittens. Now living in a hotel until I can have access to my flat, which might be a week or months, depending upon asbestos contamination tests.

It's all very romantic. :-/


Fantasy:
The fireman is there purely for my selfish pleasure.


Reality:
They work their fucking asses off.




While I've always appreciated fire-fighters, watching them for a few hours gave me a much more profound appreciation for the very real risks that they take.





... and will take willingly, even to save a wee Princess.





Fantasy:
I don't consider anyone but myself.


Reality:
There are about 100 people, many of them in the 80s and 90s, now 'homeless.' I'm ok. I'm 'young' and healthy - I can adapt. Many of my neighbours are not young and/or healthy and/or have life circumstances that are stressful enough as it is. They don't need this shit.

While fantasy nibbles my earlobes, reality bites. Sometimes very hard.

And now I'm afraid to fantasize about anything.

A tsunami warning, some explosions and a fire.

A busy day in my neighbourhood.

There's a tsunami advisory issued for the coastal area because of the earthquake earlier today in Chile. Not a huge deal for us locally as it's just an advisory, those happen often enough and as Steve Bachop of the PEP - Provincial Emergency Program - stated, "people should definitely not be freaking out!" ... lol, you tell 'em, dude!

Then...

At about 2pm, after a morning of sweaty chores and a 'run,' I'm about to jump into the shower and I hear a big bang. A really big bang... but with my wonky hearing and the noise from the shower, I just shrug and 'whadever.'

Then, BANG! Hmmm....

Again, BANG!!! BANG!!!

Ok... this is not normal.

And then I hear sirens.

I grab a towel and go look out a window and OMFG! A huge wall of flames across the street! Lots of fire engines and cop cars show up very quickly and get on with doing what they do... in the mean time more explosions, more flames and very thick black smoke.

I took these shots... they're not very good... a darkish day, through a window, through pine trees... trying not to use the flash cos of the reflection.





It was not a massive of fire but when you're in a structure containing all your worldly possessions and that structure is made of wood, and it's surrounded by trees and you're butt fuckin' naked and you're hard of hearing yet can still hear the crackling flames... it's a big enough fire.

Scary how fast the flames spread yet amazing how fast the fire dudes got here and put it out.

From what I can gather the area that burned is a parking area for a condo building - a big long carport of covered parking. I'm guessing the explosions were various cars or car parts exploding. It's all roped off so I'll have to wait for the gossip or news to get the scoop.

I'm pretty sure no one got hurt, so that's good.

And, on the plus side, sitting here at my laptop for the last while I've noticed how peaceful it is with the road closed off...

I'm such a hawtie.

I just have to walk past a few trees to start a forest fire. Ha!

I was walking past a local park, (Beacon Hill Park) and saw some smoke puffing up beyond some shubbery. I thought it was likely just someone smoking a joint ('tis the west coast after all).

Getting closer however, it became more than just a bit of smoke. A cyclist noticed it too and we looked at each other... 'that's beyond a cigarette, isn't it?'

He called 911, me giving the location as he wasn't familiar with the city. And so we waited and watched the smoke getting thicker. Of course my crap photography skills couldn't really pick this up very well:




Within seconds I heard sirens as the fire hall was literally around the corner. We pointed to where the flames were to the on-coming fire trucks, sat back and watched (as you do).




They put out the fire... yippy! But a lot of the area got scorched pretty good. Question for Neil: what do you think will grow well here now?




An hour later, I'm walking home and hear more sirens... I look down the street and see this:




Another fire! I'm just that hawt! ;-)

A second floor flat... completely gutted but fortunately contained and no one was hurt. If you squint and use a lot of imagination you can see smoke going up the left side of the building.




I had to laugh when I was 'leaving the scene'... fire prevention division. Where the fuck have you been all day?