4am scare

this is what woke me up at 4am today.

i was nearly off to dreamland when i unwittingly noticed the acrid smell of burning plastic / wiring. to be honest, it was one of those smells that i used to like (addict!) when i was kid, so i did not immediately jump to wakefulness, almost in the same way that you would want to linger in your restful state when you're in a lucid dream. however, the smell persisted in such a way that i eventually had to consider that something was wrong. i got up from my bed, checked the outlet in my room, and sniffed for burning wires. nada. i sniffed some more and the smell was gone. i went back to bed thinking that the smell was just part of a dream. 



the smell came back once i closed my eyes, and this time it was much stronger. upon turning on top of my bed, i noticed an orange light coming from under my door. at that moment, i really knew something was wrong. if there was any kind of light that should be radiating from under my door, it should be white light because we always have a night light switched on in the hallway separating my room from my parents' room.


when i opened the door, a portion of the wall near the socket was already ablaze. i shouted for my dad but immediately figured out my dad wasn't inside the house. i quickly rapped the door of my parents' room while shouting at my mom to wake up, then i ran down the stairs to get the extinguisher, but it was nowhere near where i knew it should have been placed. fortunately, my dad heard me from the commissary when i shouted for him, so as soon as he realized that we already had a slight emergency, he toted the extinguisher to the upstairs hallway and blasted the socket and the wall. needless to say, my dad would be forever my hero.

lessons for the day: a) (try) don't panic (although i was nearing panic mode when i couldn't find the extinguisher), b) don't EVER douse electrical fire with water, c) try not to breathe while fire is being extinguished (you can try breathing, but oxygen would be VERY scarce), d) always make sure that you know where your fire extinguisher is placed and where your emergency exits are (and where the corresponding keys are placed if they are habitually locked, like mine).